Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There was nothing soft or romantic about the way his hand closed around her throat. The high was dizzying, everything she chased when she was with him. He was aggressive, dominating, and selfish with her, things she liked most about him. Behind closed doors, in the shadows of her dark loft, he was different with her. There was a safe word between them, one she’d never used, one he'd insisted they have. Just in case, he'd said, knowing his own capabilities, knowing exactly what he wanted with her. His hold on her neck was tight, but not crushing, though he cut off her air supply in short bursts. He choked her for the sounds she made, for the way she felt as black spots danced before her eyes. He was relentless. He was rough. He was everything she wanted and then some.

It was carnal, the way they handled themselves on her pristine sheets. They smelled of him, like he belonged there with her. He was close, but so was she. His thrusts were hard, fast, and deep, and she begged for him to keep going, to fuck her like he meant it. There would be delicious bruises left behind, red indentations where his nails had dug into her pale skin. When he was close, there was no rhythm, just him claiming her in every possible way. Unlike her, he didn't say dirty words. He grunted that he was close, the only warning she got as he slammed into her, lewd noises of flesh meeting flesh drowning out anything else he meant to say. He came to a shuddering halt, where he moaned low in his throat, then he thrust into her a few more times, riding out his orgasm. She hadn't reached her climax, but he remained inside of her as he rubbed her clit, the nicest thing he'd done for her that whole night. She came with a choked moan, though it faded into what sounded like a sob. He looked down at her, absolutely spent, then he pulled out and she lowered her legs from his shoulders. It was always awkward on the come-down. He didn't know quite what to say. They'd moved beyond empty apologies. He wasn't sorry about the way he treated her, and she wasn't sorry about pushing him to release his pent-up frustrations on her. It worked for them.

She stretched out, slow and lazy, and he lowered himself onto the bed beside her. When she complained that he hadn't pulled out, he hummed at her and she shoved his face deep into her pillow. She thought about suffocating him, just for being a cheeky shit, but she relented and let him breathe again. Unlike her, he didn't enjoy oxygen deprivation. He had a daddy kink and a love of spanking, things she'd learned about him in the past six months. She knew what he liked, what he needed, at least sexually. Outside of the bedroom, they didn't bother to get to know one another. He was closed off and so was she. He'd had a bad childhood and so had she. Neither of them wanted to talk about such things. At one point, he'd been nice enough to try, but she'd shot him down. Her hobbies didn't matter. Her dreams didn't matter. Her pleasure mattered, and he pleased her quite well. It was why their relationship worked so well. Beyond the bedroom, it was almost nonexistent.

He turned his head to the side to see her and she sneered at him. He'd once told her that no man would willingly enter into a relationship with her because as good as she was in bed, she was insane. She'd told him that it didn't bother her because no woman would ever be able to handle all of his baggage. They were in agreement that they would likely never progress in that aspect of their lives. She didn't want some needy man holding her back, and he didn't want some woman tying him down. Sex was simple, something uncomplicated for them. But unlike her, he didn't sleep around. She'd stopped it for him because he was more than enough, and he'd teased her that her feelings were showing. He'd received a cold shoulder for that one.

Pulling her black hair up into a high ponytail, she leaned over to reach the hair tie on her nightstand. He liked it down because she liked when he pulled on it. It was too long and wild, but she liked that; her hair added to her intimidation factor. She nudged his left calf with her right foot and he mumbled a what before opening his closed eye to see her again. He'd stayed a few times, but he knew to be gone before dawn. She kept him at a distance because it was easier. She'd lost one person she'd let in and she'd promised herself she'd never let someone that close to her again. He knew exactly what she meant when she pointed at the clock on the nightstand to his side. He turned away to squint at the bright time displayed in red. It was midnight, not too late to leave, if he wanted. He turned his head to her again and he made a vague motion with his hand. He wanted to stay.

She felt disgusting, so she climbed out of bed and left him to doze off. Her bathroom was on the first floor, the bedroom in the loft, so she had to descend stairs to get there. Her stray cat turned roommate circled around her legs as she walked, so she ran her hand along the cat's spine. Kakashi hated cats. He'd tried to get her to lock Yokosuka in the bathroom when he was around, but she'd told him that he could fuck off. It was amusing to her that Yokosuka actually liked him. Sometimes she caught the man petting the cat, but she never called him out on the act. In the bathroom, she turned on the hot water in the shower to let it heat up, then she ran her fingers through her hair to get rid of some of the knots. She was still annoyed that he hadn't pulled out, so she grumbled as she stepped into the shower. When she returned to bed, she smelled of hibiscus. He'd thrown on his boxers and retreated under her blankets, so she threw on a long, black tank top and a pair of panties and joined him. At one time, he'd tried to hold her, but they'd both decided it just wasn't right, so he kept to the right side of the bed, giving them both their space.

Kakashi was a handsome man, his devilishly good looks easily enough to make him the perfect heart breaker, and he was only twenty-one, still young. She studied his profile as he slept. He lay on his stomach, one arm beneath him, against his chest, the other beside his head. He never snored, though sometimes he mumbled in his sleep. He talked about his teammates a lot, though she never confessed to the fact that she listened to him. He had no idea. Sometimes she responded, and sometimes she didn't. They didn't talk about the bad nights, the nights filled with nightmares, where they awoke with screams lodged in their throats. The first time he'd had a bad night, he'd scared her awake and she'd kicked him in the side. He'd had a bruise for days. She didn't think to comfort him, and when she did, she didn't know what to say. So they ignored their problems together. And it was easier that way.

When he started to mumble, she told him to shut up and he listened to her, for a change. She slept better on her right side, but she refused to leave her back exposed to him, so she slept on her left side, facing him. She didn't know when she'd fallen asleep, but she woke up to bright light, chirping birds, and the sounds of people arguing on the street. She tried smashing a pillow over her ear, but it didn't drown out their voices. Kakashi was gone, of course, not that she expected him to be there. He'd been considerate enough to make his side of the bed. She had a to-do list that encouraged her to leave her bed, even though sleep tempted her. She needed food staples, for one, and she meant to do laundry. Her parents had insisted she attend a family dinner, since she'd skipped the last nine of them, but she wasn't looking forward to spending time with them or her older brother.

Her brother was the golden child, the first to get his mangekyou, the first to fall into ANBU, and when things got bad, the first to join the police force. She called him a coward, both to his face and behind his back. He was mediocre at best. But he was married and had a child on the way. Her parents wanted her to retire and settle down, since her mother had done that. Kana hated kids though. She wanted nothing to do with them. She wasn't the nurturing type, and she was a poor teacher and role model. Her brother, Hajime, was better, when it came to children. At one time, he'd considered taking a genin team, but he'd chosen the police force instead. When the Hokage had expressed interest in assigning her a genin team, she'd said she'd retire before she ever let herself get saddled with some snot-nosed brats. He'd laughed, thinking she was joking. She wasn't joking. Kakashi had already dodged the same bullet. Some people weren't meant to be teachers, though the thought of him attempting to train some rowdy kids amused her. He deserved that kind of luck.

Breakfast was leftover soba from the restaurant two blocks over. She'd been too tired to bother with grocery shopping. Knowing she had two free days before her next mission assignment, she wanted to get some decent food into her empty fridge and cabinets. Even Kakashi had remarked that her options were worse than his own. He'd said it as if he'd expected her to treat him to gourmet cooking. She knew how to cook, but she hated it. The one time they'd shared a meal, they'd both needed two bottles of wine to get through the awkward air. It felt a lot like a date. Neither of them had known what to do about that. She hadn't dated since Kaisei. He should have been it for her, the representation of her future, but his last mission had gone wrong, and that had been the end of him. All of her thoughts had burst into flames. Planning a future had gotten her nowhere. She could only thank him for her mangekyou and breaking her heart. Kakashi didn't try to fill the gaping chasm in her heart that Kaisei had once occupied. Not that he could have. She didn't think anyone could. He was her other half, her better half; without him, she had bitterness and biting words.

Dressed in a black, fitted romper and black thigh highs, she went to retrieve her black sandals. As she passed her bedroom mirror, she moved her long hair over her shoulder and turned to see the red and white uchiwa on her back. Her mother had tried to get her to wear something other than black, but black was better with blood stains. Being a kunoichi wasn't about impressing other people with her body. She wasn't as forward as her best friend. Kana stooped down to pet Yokosuka, then she headed downstairs, where she grabbed her fingerless gloves and slipped on her sandals. As an afterthought, she strapped her wakizashi to her back. Living in Konoha didn't guarantee safety, despite what civilians thought.

There was more of a variety in the village itself, but she preferred to stay within the district. The discounts helped with her preference. So when she went for groceries, she headed to the center market. While the village marketplace allowed for haggling, the center market didn't.

She didn't mix well with her clan, thanks to roots tracing back to Madara's family. The politeness was a show for both parties, so when people greeted her, she nodded or grunted in return. Grocery shopping always made her feel domestic. It was awkward transitioning from mission mindset to off-duty mindset. Society expected her to be a lot nicer than she was. Her parents had hammered respect into her head, but it was gone as soon as she made genin and gained a sense of independence. They were distant with their children, with very little positive reinforcement and general affection. Their marriage had been arranged, and they managed to get along well enough to reproduce, but not enough to share a bedroom. It contributed to Kana's negative views on marriage. Eventually, her future with Kaisei would have ended in divorce. Love just didn't last. And yet that thought didn't ease the pain of loss.

"Hello, Kana-san." She turned from a collection of vegetables to find the clan heir holding a grocery basket filled with food. "Are you enjoying the weather?" Frowning, Kana tipped her head back to look up at the clear, blue sky. There was nothing special about Tuesday morning. He was trying to make conversation, so she shrugged her shoulders.

"No different from yesterday, or the day before that. I'd like some clouds though. I appreciate you making an effort to speak to me, but I really don't want to have anything to do with you. Your father is a pompous ass. Enjoy the weather though, kid."

"You realize your distaste for my father has nothing to do with me."

"Fine. I hate your face. Better?"

He frowned, but he didn't try to argue against her flimsy excuse. Before he could say anything else, a familiar figure dropped from a rooftop, landing beside the two. Kana assumed Kakashi had arrived for Itachi, so she took the blessing and turned back to her shopping. Instead of taking Itachi, Kakashi followed her for a few minutes as she grabbed cabbage and carrots. At that point, she knew he needed her for a mission, but she'd wanted to complete her shopping. Feeling bold, she handed her full basket over to Kakashi and began adding vegetables. He sighed and rolled his eye, but he let her go. Kana knew, just from his posture and his choice to simply go with the flow, that they weren't pressed for time. Kana considered the fact that the mission might be a long one, so she paused in her shopping to look back at him. He had inches on her in height, but not too many; she was taller than average, for a woman.

"Long-term mission?"

"That depends on us, in my opinion."

"Vague and unhelpful, as usual. Should I put the food back, Hatake?"

"Unless you'd rather clean up the rotten remains when we get back." He looked down at the basket he carried, then arched a brow at a bundle of leeks. She followed his line of sight. "I thought you hated leeks," he stated, pointing at the vegetables. She began to return the vegetables to their proper places, leaving him waiting in silence.

"The recipe I had in mind called for leeks. They're acceptable in soups and stews. If you grilled them and offered them to me, I'd turn my nose up at them. They're awful," Kana shrugged, plucking them out of the basket. He hummed in response. She hadn't thought he'd remember something so trivial. Frowning, she cast a suspicious glance at him and he offered her a fake, cheery smile from behind his mask. "You look ridiculous. Only smile when you mean it, hm?"

With the food returned and the basket gone, she led Kakashi back to her apartment. Instead of walking alongside her, he chose to trail behind her, like some lost puppy. She didn't try to persuade him to walk beside her, but she got tired of him two blocks away from her apartment and slowed to his lazy pace. Obviously the mission wasn't important enough for his cold professionalism, at least not within the village. He had a habit of adopting his commanding authority as soon as they departed, like flipping a switch. It was unhealthy, but she wasn't going to call attention to it because she acted the same way. Compartmentalizing kept them functioning.

Yokosuka greeted them as soon as Kana opened her apartment door. The white cat circled around their legs before hopping onto the living room couch and flopping onto her side for attention. While Kana went to collect her things from the loft, Kakashi gave in and began petting Yoko.

"I packed light," Kakashi informed her as she strapped her kunai pouch to her left leg. Thinking on his words, she still chose to seal away a change of clothes, her ANBU gear, and a first-aid kit. The pouch at her right hip held the scroll, some wire, and a few explosive tags. "It's an infiltration mission. We'll be posing as tourists." He didn't sound pleased with the mission, but infiltration missions weren't always easy, at least not cut and dry. She wasn't surprised he hated them.

"Location?"

"Kirigakure."

"Who the fuck vacations in that swamp hell?"

"My thoughts exactly. I'm choosing to ignore that part in favor of making contact with an informant. We'll be visiting family. You're my new wife," he smirked, looking up at her as she descended the stairs. She gave him an unimpressed look, but she chose not to engage in the topic. He wasn't terrible and he knew she wouldn't object for the mission's sake. "What about Yoko?"

"I'm touched that you're concerned about her. I'll need to drop by the station to ask my brother to look after her. He likes cats. He sure isn't doing it to help me out," Kana replied, the last part muttered under her breath. Yoko climbed onto the arm of the couch and Kana ran a hand along the purring cat’s back, then lightly flicked her tail. Yoko gave a playful swat, so Kana scratched her back a few times. Kakashi could have been looking at the way Yoko performed for attention, but Kana felt his eyes on her. When she glanced at him, he shifted his attention elsewhere. Odd.

The journey to the police station was utterly silent. Kakashi had his hands in the pockets of his pants and he found something especially interesting in the clear sky overhead. There was distance between them, but the people in the streets forced them closer. Their arms brushed as they moved, and while Kakashi didn't seem to care, Kana still enjoyed personal space. Some of her clansmen saw her walking beside Kakashi and their mouths dropped open, clearly caught off guard and assuming there was something between the two. She narrowed her eyes at them and they quickly looked away; satisfied with their reactions, she nudged Kakashi away from her and he snorted at her behavior. When they saw the familiar building housing the military police, Kana frowned, already dreading conversing with her older brother. Hajime was better than their parents, but they still didn't get along. She'd grown up with festering envy that just turned to distaste. He liked to tell her she was heartless and would die alone, and while outsiders found the words funny, it wasn't a joke.

"Why do you hate him so much?"

"He's a prick. Maybe you'll get along with him."

"Maa, no need to get testy, Kana-chan."

He shrugged his shoulders, so she turned her head away. A gentleman might have opened the door for her, but Kakashi wasn't a gentleman. She opened the door and let it close on him, but he caught it in time and followed her into the cool interior. Behind the front desk, a relatively young woman hurried through paperwork, her handwriting almost illegible. She didn't acknowledge Kana until Kana cleared her throat and startled the woman. Her eyes went to Kakashi, then to Kana, and her expression fell, changing to a show of displeasure. The clan didn't like Kakashi, and it was almost pathetic how quickly their hospitality disappeared. When the woman didn't speak to them, Kana slapped a hand down on the tiny bell sitting atop the desk. The woman grabbed it and moved it aside, then she pointed to Hajime's desk, silently directing them to the man. Hajime saw them approaching and he sighed, lowering his pen to his desk. Kana only appeared when she wanted something, and he was the same way. They had a give-and-take relationship.

"I've got a mission. I need you to look after Yoko." Kana didn't bother with a greeting, but he didn't seem bothered by the fact. His eyes went between Kana and Kakashi, his displeasure almost palpable. She placed her right hand on her hip. "Don't give me that look. You told me you liked her."

"Must you hang around with trash?" His eyes darted to Kakashi, then back to her. Kana felt a subtle shift in his chakra. He didn't appreciate the insult. She didn't classify the fluctuation as rage, but he rivaled the best at maintaining ambiguity. She had trouble reading him. She assumed it was the trauma, where every emotion but the most extreme seemed dull.

"The only trash I see is you, Hajime," she countered, catching the subtle twitch of his right eye. He released a breath, then he seemed to relax. He refused to look at Kakashi again. "Well?"

"Someone has to look after the poor thing. She's stuck with you for the rest of her life."

"Funny. That's how I feel about you."

"There's the mouthy little brat I know and loathe. This is how you end up with a man like him."

Kana had an insult on her tongue, but Kakashi lightly tapped his left wrist. Whether they were truly short on time or not, she didn't care. Hajime was aggravating; her brother knew exactly how to rile her up, and he did it effortlessly. Kana narrowed her eyes, then knocked his coffee over onto his papers. He scowled and jumped into action to save the smearing ink, but she knew she'd ruined at least some of his work. Kakashi grabbed her elbow and began to escort her from the station, while she glared daggers at her brother. He flipped her off and she mouthed out a bold fuck you before the door to the station closed behind her. Kana ripped her arm away from Kakashi and spat at the ground outside the station.

"You didn't have to defend my honor, you know."

"Maybe I just like confrontation."

"I can believe that."

Kana shoved him and he feigned stumbling, which amused her. She was the only one allowed to insult the dumb fuck. Maybe it was overstepping, but she did enjoy a good argument. It gave her a thrill that reminded her she was still alive. Kana didn't think she could ever properly explain that to another person. After all, what sane person enjoyed arguing with someone? Kakashi tried to ruffle her hair, but she slapped his hand away. He settled for pinching her ass. Scowling, she looked around, making sure no one had seen his stunt. Satisfied that they hadn't been caught, she gave up scowling at him and simply frowned. She didn't have pockets in her romper, so she crossed her arms over her chest and set off for the gate. For a change, he didn't trail behind her. As they left, he took the lead and briefed her more on the mission. It was a retrieval mission, where they would collect stolen Uzumaki seals from within the Mizukage's administration building. Why they were retrieving the seals remained a mystery, clearly above their pay grade. When he asked for her opinion, she grunted and he rolled his eye. They increased their speed, though it still seemed more like a casual stroll to Kana. Something had him distracted, whether he admitted it or not.

"It's unlike you to be so distracted," Kana noted, though her eyes remained focused on the trees ahead. He didn't say anything in response, though she knew he'd heard her. Being ignored bothered her, so she briefly considered tripping him. "Whatever is on your mind is affecting this mission. I highly suggest you handle your shit." She heard a quiet snort and she turned her head to narrow her eyes at him. He smiled for her, though it was too cheery to be genuine.

"You're worried about me?"

"Not really."

"It's cute." Kana pushed him off the branch they were on but he disappeared in a swirl of leaves and reappeared on a branch above her. He jumped to the next tree to meet up with her again, and his expression was no longer cheery. At first, she thought her behavior had ruined his mood, but he'd lost himself in thought. "We should pick up the pace," he informed her, leaving her to catch up to him. They didn't speak again for some time, and then it was only a command to make camp for the night. Whatever had been on his mind seemed long gone.

The fire was between them, so she saw flames flickering, light and shadows playing on his masked face. She’d once asked him why he bothered to cover his face, and he'd never really answered her. At first, he'd told her it was because of his ugliness, and then she'd actually seen his face and learned it wasn't true. He gave her random excuses whenever she seemed interested in the mask. Face blank, eyes hard, he stared at the base of the fire, where the flames slowly devoured the wood she'd collected. They'd finished the rabbit he'd caught and skinned, so they should have gone to sleep. Kana had volunteered to take the first watch, but he'd insisted he wasn't tired. He focused on something, some thoughts, maybe the past, and she didn't know how to broach the subject when he always dodged the questions. She wanted to know why he made that face sometimes, as if he were reliving a moment by staring into space. Asking meant picking at scabs of past trauma. He respected her boundaries enough not to touch the subject with her, so she tried to return the same courtesy, but sometimes it was awful to see him that way. She told herself she didn't give a damn, that it was curiosity at its best. When he reminisced, she thought of Kaisei. She clawed at his proverbial grave when she thought of him.

Kakashi fed another two twigs to the fire, then his eyes raised from the flames to see her. Whatever he'd relived vanished, replaced by the awareness that he wasn't alone. Sitting crisscross on the ground, her sheathed blade resting across her thighs, she met his lone eye and arched a brow, a silent question he answered by rubbing the back of his neck. He didn't want to talk about it, and she couldn't blame him. They danced around subjects. They preferred it that way. He had one leg stretched out and the other bent, pulled up toward his chest. He was only twenty, but his serious expression made him look older, or maybe it was his grey hair. She'd never teased him about it because she thought it was unique; she thought he looked good with grey hair. He'd never teased her about her hair, the way it was long and wild, untamed. Her parents told her she looked like she wanted to be a miniature Madara. They'd tried to get her to cut it, or at least style it differently, but she hadn't cared enough to try, especially not for them.

"Do you," she began, ending the question with a vague gesture to him. Kakashi frowned, and his hesitation made her think that he might actually trust her enough to unpack some of his heavy baggage. He tipped his head back and looked into the canopy. Maybe he'd thought he could glimpse the stars without all of the light pollution. She rolled her eyes at him and turned her attention to her blade.

"It's just the sharingan." Unable to properly explain himself, he stopped. She knew he couldn't deactivate the eye, because it wasn't his eye, so she wondered if it had to do with chakra exhaustion. Reaching out with her chakra, she found that he still had plenty of chakra. The left corner of his mouth was upturned, where he'd clearly felt her probing at him. "It's not chakra exhaustion, Kana. It's hard to explain. It shows me things I've never seen before, people I've never met before."

"No wonder you dodge your psych evaluations."

"Hm. Maybe it has a little to do with it. Why do you dodge yours?"

"I'm not stupid enough to think I'd pass them."

He chuckled and she picked at her nails, distracting herself from the sound. She felt something in the distance, a chakra signature that appeared and disappeared within seconds. Few could avoid her detection, so she knew the person had disappeared. Eyes narrowed, she turned her head in that direction and stared into the darkness. Kakashi caught onto her and stared into the forest with her, but neither of them saw anything within range of their sight, not even with the sharingan. No one was there. When she'd relaxed, she felt the same flicker of chakra, warm like embers with a dark undercurrent that she couldn't describe. Something out of place, something that didn't belong. Kakashi tried to focus on the chakra signature, but it vanished again, leaving him wondering if they'd imagined the presence. Kana shook her head at him and held up one finger to show that it had been the same person.

"Teleportation?"

"It felt that way, didn't it? Keep an eye on the surrounding area. Alert me if the person gets closer."

"I will."

Chapter Text

Before dawn, a foreign chakra signature brushed against her senses. She felt a hand press over her mouth and an arm drape over her waist. Kakashi held her still and his hand silenced her. He moved his hand when the feeling of embers overtook them. Kakashi pressed against her, his warm breath hitting the side of her neck. To an outsider, the touch appeared romantic at best. He whispered for her to keep her eyes closed, then he kissed her neck. Together, they waited until the chakra signature stopped moving. They both knew the shinobi was in the trees, his location to the south of their little camp. The fire was nothing but smoke, giving the person the remaining cover of darkness. With the close proximity, Kana's senses became warning bells. Everything told her to lunge and attack, but Kakashi’s arm around her waist had her still. He likely felt her heart beating out of her chest. Remaining passive and feigning sleep became almost unbearable. She felt Kakashi’s lips against her ear for a chaste kiss. He likely hoped that the intimacy would drive the person away. Neither felt the presence of killing intent, and she sensed no hostility. When the chakra signature vanished, Kana felt Kakashi relax and he withdrew his arm.

"What was that?"

"I knew you'd engage. I want to know why we're being watched."

"Feel me up properly next time or don't do it at all."

"What am I going to do with you?" Sitting up, he sighed at her and shook his head. They'd had enough sleep to start cleaning up camp, so while Kakashi worked on erasing their presence, Kana went to find something decent to eat. "Don't go too far," Kakashi warned her. She snorted at the words and muttered that she would do whatever the hell she wanted. If he heard her, he didn't say anything.

She expected birdsong and the first rays of light, but the forest lacked its typical sounds and the canopy hid her away from the pink sky. The silence did nothing to ease her nerves, so when she felt that flicker of chakra, she froze. Her foot snapped a twig and she whirled around to face the person sitting in the tree at her back. He wore a mask, though it wasn't a mask she recognized from ANBU or hunter nin, which meant it was a personal preference. Her hand went to the hilt of her sword and he tipped his head to the side. There was only one hole in the mask, so she focused there. He made no move to attack her; Kakashi’s words echoed in her mind. He'd wanted to know why they were being watched. She didn't like interrogations unless she could use force, but she slowly moved her hand away from her wakizashi. He stopped tilting his head and began to lazily swing his legs back and forth, as if he were a child.

"What the fuck do you want?"

"Maybe I just like to frequent this spot and you're trespassing on my space."

"Uh huh. You can have your space back. We're done here anyway."

"Ahh, so you are, shinobi-san. Looks like your boyfriend is coming this way," the man said, looking off to his left. Sure enough, Kakashi emerged from the greenery, a kunai in hand. "We'll talk again soon, Kana." He tipped backwards and disappeared during the fall, leaving Kakashi to slowly relax and lower his weapon. The man knew her name. Frowning, she kicked a pebble at the tree the man had once inhabited.

"He used your name," Kakashi said, doing a quick once over of the area with his sharingan. She still stared at the branch where the man had been sitting. "Do you know him?" By her silence, he answered the question himself. No, she didn't know him, and yes, that concerned her. She rationalized as he deemed the area safe. "We need to get moving. Stay with me. Let me know if he comes back."

"Yeah," she answered, still distracted. Maybe he'd known her from the bingo book. If he did, he should have left her alone, since she was flee on sight, along with Kakashi. The man was likely overconfident. "He scared all of the animals away so it's berries for breakfast."

At the end of the day, rather than make camp, they decided to keep moving at a slower, more reasonable rate. It was dark, so they traveled on the forest floor until the path curved and carried them onto a main road. With a flat area and trees on either side, the road stretched on for what seemed like forever. During the day, the road likely had a lot of traffic; at night, the area was deserted. Kakashi’s long stride had him pulling ahead, but when he noticed she made no effort to keep up, he slowed to match her pace. She couldn't forget the way the man had said her name, and the last-minute promise of a future meeting. With his ability to appear and disappear wherever he pleased, he wouldn't be deterred by the guards or the barrier around Konoha. If he meant to see her again, there was nothing she could do to stop him. Kakashi flicked her temple and she huffed at him, her narrowed eyes finding what looked like concern on his face. The emotion he displayed with her made her feel awkward, uncertain, uncomfortable. There was distance between them, and she worried that he was closing it.

"Stop looking at me like that. It's weird, Hatake."

"Like your constipated look is any better."

"I'm thinking!"

He made a face and turned to stare at the road ahead. She shoved him and he made a show of stumbling two steps to the left. His decision to play along had her chuckling and he looked at her in surprise, as if she'd never laughed around him before. Maybe she hadn't. Kana pursed her lips and looked away from him, then she folded her arms behind her head. Their decision to travel through the night to the Land of Hot Water put them ahead of schedule. While she didn't know what the schedule looked like, Kakashi seemed confident that they were following it. Sometimes, when she looked at him, she wondered why he put up with her. Her brother had likened her to an angry cat. She wasn't the best with feelings, being blunt, sometimes cold, and distant. Kakashi had his own glaring issues, like the fact that he'd built a wall between the world and himself and the fact that while Kana was slowly working through grief, he seemed consumed by it. She wasn't as heartless as the world made her seem, and he wasn't as closed off as he liked to pretend.

"What's on your mind now?"

"What makes you think something is on my mind?"

"I've known you for almost a year now. I know what you look like when you're thinking. Constipated or pissed off at the world. Sometimes both. That takes talent, by the way."

"I don't like that you know that," Kana blurted out, embarrassing herself.

Kakashi blinked a few times and shrugged his shoulders, as if he couldn't help the fact that she found it disconcerting. He didn't seem sorry for knowing her better than she'd assumed he did. She wanted to ask him what else he'd noticed about her, but she hesitated. He tucked his hands into his pockets and kicked a rock ahead of himself, silently nudging it whenever he moved up to it. He didn't like what she'd said. She'd hurt him, and she hated that she knew that. Maybe it was expected. She didn't consider him a friend, and he didn't consider her a friend, but they knew one another intimately. She'd assumed that they only knew what they enjoyed in bed. She knew she should have cut him off, but she didn’t. That said something about her.

"I know you hate fried foods, like tempura, and you aren't a fan of sweets. You like eggplant, but I don't know why." She tried to apologize in a way she was willing to apologize. She showed him that she paid attention to him too. It was awkward, the way she randomly threw the words at him, but he smiled beneath his mask.

"Hm. You like gyoza and yakitori, but you will also eat or drink anything with matcha." She refused to look at him because she didn't want him to see her expression, but he still gathered enough from her profile to chuckle at her. "Your favorite color is green, but you don't own anything that's green. People probably assume your favorite color is black."

"Lucky guess," she mumbled, purposely turning her head away. She didn't know his favorite color, but she knew he enjoyed cooking and reading. He hid behind Icha Icha but she knew for a fact that he had plenty of other books. "So we know some things about one another." She shrugged it off.

"It's okay to admit it. You know you don't have to play it off. It's expected. We happen to spend time together," Kakashi said, shrugging along with her. She wrinkled her nose and took a quick glance in his direction. She thought he might look amused, but he seemed indifferent. She could handle that. "You act like it's the end of the world. I'm not terrible."

"I never said you were terrible," she frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. There was a chill in the air, at least that's what she told herself. "I just don't do well when it comes to getting close to someone. We've both been burned." He nodded at her truthful words. He'd lost too many people, and her first romantic partner had died in the field. She had to admit that losing him would still hurt her, and that made her want to end things.

"I'm not too good with it either," Kakashi sighed, rubbing the back of his head. His fingers passed through his hair. She bit the inside of her cheek and looked away. "Do you want to stop?" No, she didn't, not really. Kana sighed then, taking a page from his book as she kicked a pebble down the road.

"I don't need you."

"I never said you did."

"I don't like you."

"Mhm."

Kana hated how he dismissed her words. She didn't need him. She didn't need anyone. She was hyper aware that her feelings were due to her upbringing. He didn't seem bothered, but she wondered if he'd put his proverbial mask on, the one he'd lowered whenever they were together. She didn't need him, but she wanted him. That was difficult to admit. Her reluctance made acceptance practically impossible. As they walked, she toyed with the hilt of her sword. Fighting was easier. She understood battle. She understood war. Emotions? Not so much. Kaisei had knocked those walls down, and his death built them back up again, stronger, resistant to blows. Kakashi liked to claw at them, sometimes without even knowing. Distracted as she was, she almost missed the quick flicker of chakra, the feeling of embers there and gone, there and gone. It was beyond Kakashi’s range, but he caught a scent on the breeze. She confirmed his suspicions with a nod.

"Kakashi," she tried, wanting to at least finish the conversation, to keep things cut and dry. "I like the way things are. Please don't ruin it." He smiled, the subtle curve of his lips seen in the sliver of moonlight making its way through the clouds. Whatever the expression meant, he lightly rubbed his knuckles against her head. "Fucker," she scowled, punching his upper arm. He hissed in pain and gave her a dirty look.

She didn't feel the flicker of chakra for the remainder of the night, and by midday, she was more concerned with the hard rain soaking the earth. The droplets stung as they connected with her exposed skin, and her sandals squeaked with every step. If the rain had been cold, she might have enjoyed it, but it wasn't. Kakashi was smart enough not to comment on her soaked appearance, and she chose not to tease him about his drooping hair. By nightfall, she wondered if there had been a time in her life when she was dry, comfortable, and content. They battled the elements with every step. When lightning cracked and cut through the sky, Kakashi finally gave in and admitted that they needed to stop and rest. She suggested he use his fancy jutsu to fight the storm and he'd shoved her off her tree branch. She'd landed in mud, so she wanted an actual room and a hot shower. They stopped when they hit a coastal village, which put them in the vicinity for their boat ride to Kirigakure.

Kana was the first to spot the inn, so she led the way. Inside of the building, they dripped water all over the hardwood floors. The woman behind the counter took one look at their soaked, dirty faces and gave them the only room they had left. It was a nice place, with a lobby that had some seating, a television, and a variety of newspapers. Kana hesitated, trying to see if she wanted to return to the floor after her shower, but Kakashi nudged her along, sending her in the direction of the stairs. Their third-floor room had a lovely view of the coast, but they both stood at the end of the lone bed and frowned. They'd slept together plenty of times, but she'd wanted her own bed. Sighing, she tried to run her fingers through her wet hair, easing some of the knots. He collapsed on a chair in the corner of the room and rested his head against the back. He jerked his chin in the direction of their bathroom, so she took the first shower. She was halfway through washing her hair when she heard him knock on the door, as if he needed permission. She knew he would regret giving her first shower because she loved her showers hot as hell and had a tendency to leave him with only cold water.

"Used all of the hot water yet?"

"I believe you told me that missions were strictly business, Hatake."

"I'm not taking a cold shower. Move."

"Make me." He swept the shower curtain open and physically moved her away from the stream of hot water, then he hissed and drew away from the shower head. "Can't handle the heat?" He gave her a look, then he stepped under the water again. While he showered, she finished getting the knots from her hair. "How long is the journey to the Land of Water from here?"

"Hm. About three days, if the weather cooperates," he replied, stepping back so she could rinse the shampoo from her hair. It smelled like coconut, not that she minded the smell. She saw him breathe her in and felt his hands on her back. "It smells good." She rolled her eyes, hiding a smirk as she ducked her head under the water. His hands traveled lower, until they hit her lower back, then he withdrew his hands. She moved back to stand against him, purposely nudging her ass against him. "Kana," he warned her, his voice firm.

"Strictly business," Kana lied, glancing over her shoulder at him. His hands went to her hips and she sighed at his touch, the sound soft, relieved to feel his skin on hers. "Can I tempt you, Kakashi?" He nudged his nose against the side of her neck, taking in more of the coconut, even as he lightly slapped her ass. "Harder," she requested, his answer to smack her once again, leaving her skin rosy.

The water went from hot to lukewarm, so she turned the shower off and faced him. She brushed her thumb over his beauty mark and his eyes moved to her lips. His furrowed brows screamed reluctance, but his hands still found her sides, where he rubbed along them until his hands settled on her hips. For a change, he wasn't angry or stressed, so his touch lacked its usual roughness she craved. His lips met hers and she nipped his lower lip, then ran her tongue over the spot. With a sigh, he rested his forehead on her shoulder and she blinked a few times before she rubbed small circles on his back. They didn't hold one another, which made her think that something was bothering him, something he didn't want to talk about, at least not with her, not right then. He didn't move, so she didn't stop rubbing his back. Seconds passed, and she missed the heat of the shower. With the steam, they could almost disappear. When she felt low on patience, his hands moved from her hips to her ass and he squeezed. She understood the language; she could handle the subject his touch promised.

"We should go."

Reluctantly, he released his hold on her and stepped out of the shower. She stood there for a few minutes, watching him as he changed into a yukata. She thought he might turn around and pick up where he'd left off, but he left her there, the door ajar, a chill in the air. Kana dried herself off, dressed in her yukata, and worked on her hair. The room had a hair dryer, so she dried her hair to the best of her abilities, then she turned off the bathroom light. After a moment of hesitation, she closed the door behind her. Kakashi was already in bed and showed no signs of being awake, but she still chose to soften her steps. She slipped beneath the blankets and turned so that she faced the window, then she felt him shift around and press himself against her back. An arm slipped over her waist. She considered elbowing him or kicking him, but she sighed through her nose and decided to address the issue in the morning. She felt him move her hair, then he kissed her neck.

"Either you want it or you don't, Hatake."

"And if I'm content as I am?"

"I'll banish you to the floor, even if I have to break both of your legs."

"I can't imagine why you're single."

Scowling, she turned over to face him and he gave her one of his fake, cheery smiles. She aimed for his liver, but he caught her wrist and tugged her in for a brief kiss that turned into a series of soft kisses. His right hand ran along her left side, following the curve of her body. They didn't do gentle touches or sweet kisses, but he found a spot on her neck that made her forget about his strange mood. He untied her yukata and slipped a hand underneath, his fingers trailing over her skin. His grip grew tight on her left hip, so she kissed him, noting the way his lips felt against hers. They weren't dry or chapped; they were surprisingly soft, so she continued kissing him. He stopped before they progressed to anything further, so she sighed at him and opened his yukata. She expected him to grab her hands, but he didn't stop her from touching him. She ran a hand from his chest, over his abdomen, then skipped to his thighs. The intimacy between them left her uneasy, but he didn't seem bothered by the foreign concept. She chose not to say anything, thinking he would pull back or push her away. He'd done it before, on days when he just sat with her and they didn't speak. Sometimes he just wanted someone there, and she allowed it, as long as he didn't disturb her while she was busy with her own activities, typically crossword puzzles or reading or painting her nails. It was nice not to feel so alone.

"You don't seem as eager," Kakashi said, his hand slipping down to rub the outer part of her left thigh. Maybe his heart wasn't in it either. She squinted at him and he chuckled at her expression. "That's unlike you," he continued. Kana replied with a grunt and he nudged a kiss to her forehead. He knew she hated that. It made her feel like a child, like she wasn't eighteen, like she hadn't been a trained killer since her single digits.

"This feels a lot like making love, Kakashi."

"Ah, you don't like it."

"I don't want you to get the wrong idea."

"Kana, stop thinking so much."

He kissed her on the lips that time and he nudged her onto her back. Missionary wasn't her favorite position, but she decided to take his advice and go along with it, despite her mind screaming at her to shut him down. She ran her fingers through his damp hair and he left kisses along her jaw and neck, each touch of his lips like a pleasant burn. His chakra felt like a thunderstorm against her senses, like static running through her veins. There were few chakra signatures she thoroughly enjoyed, and his was one of them. Kana thought he might sit up so they could undress, but he didn't move. He rested his head against her and she frowned at him, knowing he couldn't see the expression. Instead of letting him wallow, she gave him a few light shoves to get him off of her so she could straddle him. For a change, she saw his sharingan and she knew he was capturing the moment. She wondered what he saw that was worth the effort or the memory space.

He preferred her ass, but she took his hands and placed them over her breasts, where he lightly squeezed them and brushed his thumbs over her skin. He was hard against her, so she ran a hand over his length, appreciating the length and width. He still looked at her with his sharingan, so she arched a brow at him and moved so that she could guide him into her. His attention shifted from her face and breasts to where their bodies met. In the background, thunder shook the window panes. The bedside lamp flickered with a particularly nasty flash of lightning, but she didn't stop her slow, rocking motion. His hands moved to her hips and he guided her, forcing all of himself into her until she gasped his name. The closer they grew to their climaxes, the harder his grip became. She kept an even pace, slow, torturous, as he slid in and out of her over and over again. In the back of her mind, she was aware of the fact that they had people on the other side of the wall, but she was chasing pleasure and she didn't care who knew it. She moaned his name, begging him for release, and she heard him say her name, his voice sending a shiver down her spine.

She hit her peak first and she let out a soft oh that stretched on until she was nothing but heavy breathing. They paused for a moment to allow her to regain control, then he started thrusting into her, finally rough with his bruising grip. She felt another orgasm slowly rising, like a hot, heavy weight in her core. When he came, she followed after. She didn't care that he hadn't pulled out, even though they'd established an agreement that he would. She hissed as she moved from atop him, a pleasant numbness following, where she felt half drunk, blissfully curling up at his side, not arguing when he pulled her in to rest against him. She felt his heart racing, just like her own. She thought he might try to say something and ruin the moment, but his eyes were closed, as if he meant to doze off. She knew she needed to freshen up, so she lightly patted his stomach and excused herself. She thought she heard him mumble her name, and when she returned, he was on his side, an open invitation to settle next to him. Chewing on her bottom lip, she finally surrendered and lay next to him. His arm went over her and he kissed her shoulder blade. Yes, it definitely felt like making love.

Chapter Text

The boat ride to the Land of Water had her feeling off balance and half sick, so she spent most of her time below deck, while Kakashi kept an eye on the horizon. Since their time in the coastal village, he'd put distance between them, as if he knew exactly what she wanted. He was a genius, so she wasn't surprised, but their last time together left her a little confused, and her temper always flared when something confused her. He was withholding something, which became obvious when he wouldn't even look her in the eyes. And she'd tried cornering him, but he always managed to slip away. On her bottom bunk, in their shared room, she focused on anything other than the rocking motion of the boat. She ate very little and drank even less, because she knew she would likely spend the rest of the journey running back and forth between their room and the toilet. The captain was nice enough to offer her something to settle her stomach, but her paranoia saw poison, so she suffered through it on her own. Unlike her, Kakashi seemed perfectly fine with the way the waves crashed into the boat, sending it back and forth, their world tilting. She hated the journey to Kirigakure.

"I didn't take you for someone who gets seasick."

She dry heaved into the toilet. When the urge to vomit receded, she turned to glare at him. He leaned in the doorway, as if the sight didn't bother him. After a moment's hesitation, she flipped him off and slowly got to her feet. When the boat rocked, she stumbled, but he caught her forearm and helped her stand and wait for calmer waters. His hand was warm against her arm and she found her other hand resting on his shoulder. They stared at one another for a moment too long, then she pulled away from him and went to brush her teeth with the toothbrush and toothpaste she'd stolen from the inn. She expected him to leave, but he stayed, hands in his pockets, unbothered by the movements of the ship. She watched his reflection in the mirror, taking note of his posture and the way he avoided looking at her, even though her back was to him. He looked surprisingly small, with his slumped shoulders and his wandering eyes. He'd been deep in thought since they'd left the coast. She'd confronted him once, but he'd played it off as being focused on the mission. Even though he stood near her, he was so far away. She told herself she didn't give a damn.

"Is there a reason you're hovering?"

"There's a storm rolling in. It'll set us back."

"Fantastic. It's going to get worse."

"I brought you some carrot ginger soup. I made it." He shrugged his shoulders, then he turned and left the bathroom, allowing her time to finish brushing her teeth. She found him in their room, and he had a small tray waiting for her. She sat down next to him on her bunk and he nudged the soup in her direction. "It's not much." He downplayed his odd behavior, so she nodded, even though she didn't agree with the words. While she'd expected subpar food, she actually enjoyed the soup. "Not bad?" To tease him, she made a so-so motion with her right hand.

After she finished the soup, he took the bowl from her to return it to the kitchen, leaving her to wonder about his consideration. He'd said he wasn't terrible, but she knew he still hated himself over things that had happened almost a decade ago. He'd been a child, despite being a jonin, and although he liked to argue that he hadn't done enough, she had a feeling there was nothing he could have done to change things. He wasn't terrible. That wasn't the problem. He wasn't the problem. Frowning, Kana pulled her hair over her shoulder and ran her fingers through it, distracting herself with a pursuit of knots that didn't exist. She wondered if he'd chosen her for her skills or simply because he enjoyed her company. After a moment, she snorted at the thought. He wasn't the type. He rationalized well. He did everything in his power to complete missions, though he was the best captain she'd ever worked with. He valued the lives of his comrades. He was frustrating sometimes, but his heart was in everything, even when he pretended it wasn't. He was honestly too good for her.

He reappeared in the doorway, a toothbrush sticking out of the corner of his mouth. She stared at his exposed face, even as he went to a bag he'd picked up in the coastal village. They'd bought packs and wore civilian clothes, and it was odd seeing him so relaxed, so normal. When he caught her staring, he arched a brow at her and she quickly looked away. She turned on her bunk and curled up on her side, doing her best to focus on something stationary to distract herself from the constant motion of the boat. He found what he was looking for and disappeared again, leaving her staring at the spot where he'd once stood. He returned and turned off the light in their room, leaving them in darkness. He settled in for the night, so she closed her eyes and tried to get some sleep before their arrival in the Land of Water. Halfway through the night, she felt a hand on her side, then she felt him slide into bed beside her. It was cramped, but she mumbled that she was cold and allowed him to hold her. She didn't process his presence until she woke up a few hours later and had to climb over him to get to the bathroom.

"Hm?" His dark eye opened and she patted his back and told him to go back to sleep. When she returned, he'd moved so that she didn't have to climb over him. She slipped in beside him and he held her again. It was something to discuss in the morning, or maybe something to ignore. She did that sometimes.

They disembarked and she felt like kissing the ground. Adjusting took time, since she'd grown used to being shoved around by the waves. As they headed inland, Kakashi was unusually silent. They hit the first village and Kakashi took her hand in his, effortlessly lacing their fingers together. They were newlyweds. They were sickeningly sweet. Kana wore a navy-blue dress with colorful embroidery along the top and the bottom edge. Kakashi chose to wear a pair of black, cropped pants and a floral, button-up shirt that screamed vacation. He looked silly, but she looked just as ridiculous, in her opinion. They didn't need to meet with their contact when they hit Kirigakure, so they presented their papers to the shinobi on guard duty and continued into the village. Kana couldn't get over the goofy brown wig the man insisted on wearing. He called himself Sukea, and she was his delightful wife, Botan. He'd tried to get her to wear a wig, but she chose temporary hair dye in a shade of brown. She had little options without bleaching her hair.

"Did you have to bring that stupid camera?"

"Mm. Yes. I want to remember our trip, my love."

"You're way too committed."

"Marriage is forever."

The purple marks on his cheeks reminded her of Rin. She was younger, but she'd met the girl on a few occasions. Rin had been incredibly kind and loyal, all about teamwork, and Kana hadn't cared for her. She wondered if Kakashi chose the face for Rin, as some way to remember her or honor her. Whenever Rin did come up in conversation, he ruined whatever mood had settled between them. He thought of the lost too much, but she knew she wasn't much better. She'd overreacted and thrown out anything to do with Kaisei, while he'd held onto items. His team photo was on the desk next to his bed, the crown jewel of his room. She always turned it away when they were at his apartment. She felt as if they were watching them. Kakashi gave her hand a squeeze and brought her from her thoughts. He'd caught her staring at him. She wondered if she was jealous of a dead girl. At the thought, she frowned and returned the squeeze. He smiled at her, his eyes closing with the gesture. It was odd not seeing the sharingan, and she wanted to see the scar he'd hidden beneath makeup. He snapped a photo of her and she tried and failed to snatch the camera from him.

He leaned in, mouth hovering over the outer shell of her ear. She waited, unsure of his plans, then she felt a warm breath on her skin. "Can you sense the Mizukage?" She closed her eyes and focused on the chakra signatures in the village, sorting through all of them in the blink of an eye. One signature felt like a beacon to her, like a storm churning over calm waters. Locating the jinchuuriki, she turned her head in the direction of a large building. He was in the administration building, as expected. "That's where the seals are. I want this done in twelve hours. Let's meet our contact."

"There's the man I know."

"I'm sure that's an insult."

"Maybe."

He placed his left hand on her lower back and guided her down the street, as if he'd been to the village countless times. She could have shown him all around the Land of Rain and the Land of Grass, so she understood that he frequented the islands. It was warm and humid, the weather promising more rain as the day dragged on. Sweat gathered on her skin, making her feel sticky. Every step was like passing through suffocating clouds. Humidity wasn't an issue in Konoha. Already, she hated the hidden village. When he moved his hand from her lower back, he nodded toward a two-story home with greenery on the roof. The building had seen better days, but so had other buildings in the village. The kekkei genkai purge had led to a lot of fighting within the Land of Water. Kana had never understood the purpose. Ever since Zabuza had slaughtered his way to infamy, the village had been on a decline. Kirigakure had earned its title of the bloody mist. She saw similarities there. Soon, her own clan would make a power grab, and she saw them being slaughtered. Maybe their village would have a new nickname too.

The home was on the outskirts of the village, so she didn't expect a child to answer the door. Kakashi didn't seem surprised. A man quickly appeared in the doorway and told his son to go back to breakfast. Kakashi smiled and waved at the man and easily followed him into the house, leaving Kana to close the door behind them. The home was cluttered, but in a way that said the home was lived in. The indoor plants prospered, some flowering from where they hung in windows.

"I have the layout for the administration building. This way, this way," the man said, waving for them to follow him upstairs. The wood steps creaked with every step. "I hope the journey was good?" He looked back at them and Kana responded with a vague hand motion that had the man smiling. "The seas are rough this time of year."

"She isn't much for smalltalk, Fusao," Kakashi informed the man, taking a quick look over his shoulder. Kana shrugged her shoulders, the only response he needed to shift focus back to their informant. "You mentioned that Yagura would be out of the village for almost a week. He's still here. Why is that?"

"Change of plans, I'm afraid. It happens sometimes." He didn't appear apologetic. The fact that he avoided eye contact was a red flag for Kana. She tapped out a code on Kakashi’s right forearm and he responded by tapping her left wrist. "Ah, here we are," Fusao said, opening a door at the end of the second-floor hallway. He had papers strewn across a desk, but a large map held his attention. "If you'll excuse me. Would you care for anything to drink?"

"Yes, we'd love some tea, if you have any," Kana spoke, surprising the man. She forced a kind smile, one he returned, then she joined Kakashi at the desk. When she felt his chakra fade, she looked up from the map to see Kakashi’s hard expression. The carefree persona he'd adopted at the coast was gone, replaced by irritation. "I bet he tries to poison us. I don't sense any approaching chakra signatures."

"At some point, he has to alert them. We're already behind the schedule we'd set, thanks to the storm. It's possible he was never loyal. He's part of the Yuki clan. I can't imagine why he'd work for the Mizukage."

"It doesn't matter. We need to kill him. Opinion on the kid? We should kill him. He's old enough to be a part of this."

"Alter his mind. I'll take care of Fusao."

"This whole mission is in jeopardy."

"Let me worry about it. Deal with the kid."

Kana scoffed, but she didn't voice a complaint. When Fusao returned with two cups of tea, Kakashi graciously accepted one, so Kana followed his lead. Before she took a drink, she asked for directions to the upstairs bathroom, giving Kakashi the time he needed to dispose of the man while she went in search of the child. The boy, no older than ten, sat at the kitchen table with his mother. Kana watched them for a few minutes, taking note of the woman's stiff posture and the boy's distracted behavior. It was easy to claim getting turned around. They all heard a thump come from the floor above, so Kana stabbed the woman in the throat and took her body to the floor. The boy opened his mouth to scream, but she made eye contact with her mangekyou. She altered memories, creating new ones to outweigh the old ones she hoped would fall to the back of his mind. When she'd finished, she knocked him out and put him on the kitchen floor.

Kakashi joined her, dressed in his ANBU gear, his mask at his hip, so she went to change and prepare for the hardest part of the mission. They had to wait for nightfall and try to complete a mission with enemies aware of their presence. Kana would have preferred another bout of seasickness. She hated the thought of fighting an angry jinchuuriki. She wasn't stupid enough to think she'd get out of it alive.

Chapter Text

Nightfall gave them the cover they needed to make their first move. As they moved, Kana took control and led them along routes free of Kirigakure shinobi. The closer they moved to the administration building, the more difficult it became to avoid them. At one point, she guided Kakashi into an apartment building to avoid detection. The rest of the journey offered them no cover, so they had no way of concealing themselves. There was routine in the way the shinobi on guard duty rotated, but there were more than expected. Kana tapped out twenty-three on Kakashi’s shoulder and she heard his frustrated sigh from behind his mask. She nudged his side and pointed to a clear opening on the right side of the building, but they both knew it was a trap. Kakashi took lead on the mission, so whatever he decided, Kana would follow. Progress was slow, every movement exact. Kakashi dropped a guard in the rotation, giving them the entrance they needed to the rooftop. They blended into shadows, but at some point, Kana knew they'd have to move.

"Genjutsu?" Kakashi nodded, so she covered his left eye, preventing him from using the sharingan. Instead, she used her sharingan on the guards slowly moving through their rotation. When it became clear that they were under the influence, Kakashi gave the signal and they moved. "Wait. He's in the office."

"Is he moving?"

"He's stationary."

"We need that office." Kakashi surveyed the building, giving it another once over before he dropped down to another section of the roof. She didn't sense chakra in the room, so she nodded and allowed him to break the window. The noise was muffled, and they didn't attract attention, so he went in first. "Clear." She followed him inside and he began working on seals that had detected their presence. "Fuck," he swore, a rarity with him. "If he didn't know we were here, he does now. Movement?"

"None. The guard rotation is the same too. Hound, what do you want to do? It's your call."

"How do you feel about confronting an angry jinchuuriki?"

"You're insane."

"I've been called worse."

Yagura was shorter than she expected. He looked like a child lost in the large office. When Kakashi had suggested they confront the Mizukage directly, she'd thought he meant using some form of stealth, not knocking on the office door and waiting for permission to enter. Although he'd volunteered to be the distraction while she searched for the scroll, she'd insisted she could handle the Mizukage long enough for Kakashi to locate and gain access to the scroll. Yagura didn't move, which had them both waiting for some sign that he was aware of their presence. He lowered his pen and seemed to stare right through them, then Kana felt the flicker of chakra again. Kana motioned for Kakashi to go, while she watched a man emerge behind Yagura, coming from thin air. It was the same man she'd confronted in the forest, but his mask had changed. Yagura's chakra was stifling, as if he meant to suffocate them, but she focused on the warm embers of the masked man's chakra. He tried to hide it, but she wasn't an ordinary sensor. Yagura stood, so Kana unsheathed her blade and shifted her stance. Instead of attacking, the man went to look out one of the windows, as if she weren't there at all. Genjutsu came to mind, but jinchuuriki shouldn't have been susceptible to genjutsu.

"Can you pinpoint the jinchuuriki from where we are right now?"

She didn't like the question. Her grip tightened on her blade and he simply dropped down into Yagura's vacant chair. He rested his cheek on a hand and observed her. By that point, Kakashi stopped his exploration of the office to focus on the conversation. Kakashi shook his head at Kana and she frowned behind her mask. She could feel them. If she tried, she was confident she could pick out familiar chakra across the map. She downplayed her abilities and shook her head. He snorted and his eyes strayed to Kakashi. Kana knew about rage and hatred, but the dark undercurrent of the man's chakra felt foul to her. Her senses told her there was more than one person there, despite the fact that her eyes were on him. Something was wrong with him. They needed to leave. Kana whistled and tapped her wrist, so Kakashi continued searching. When the filing cabinets were pulled out, he moved to the other door in the room. She'd thought it was a closet but it was another room.

"It's surprisingly difficult to get you alone. Cat got your tongue, shinobi-san?"

"I'm not very interested in being alone with you."

"I could be a great conversationalist."

"I highly doubt that."

"It's not here. It's down the hall. The Uzumaki scroll, yes?" Kana looked at the open door to the attached room and went back and forth with her options. She took a step toward the doorway and Yagura's chakra encompassed the room again, leaving her breathless. "You can take a short walk with me, or I can have every available shinobi show up to greet you. The choice is yours." He stood and brushed his gloved hands together, as if they were dirty. She could handle herself. She was confident in her abilities. With no chance of telling Kakashi where she was going, she gave in and nodded. The mission mattered more than her own comfort and security.

She hadn’t expected him to tell her his name, so she wasn’t disappointed in the silence. While Kakashi wasted time searching for a scroll that wasn’t there, she walked alongside the stranger as if they were old friends. The frown on her face told him that she didn’t appreciate his behavior and wanted nothing to do with him, but her harsh look didn’t deter him. He wasn’t like the villagers. Whoever he was, he was a well-trained shinobi, and he had just as much confidence in himself. The hallway was surprisingly free of shinobi, as if he’d orchestrated the whole evening. Maybe he had. Kana eyed his profile, then he slowly turned to look at her and she saw a single dark eye staring back at her. The moment made her uneasy, so she clenched her fists at her side and turned away. He didn’t attempt to start a conversation with her, and he made no move to attack her, but she remained alert and prepared to fight. Her senses kept screaming that she was in danger, that the man next to her was a mixture of chakra signatures and barely contained rage. He felt like chaos embodied, and he was polite enough to open the sealed door for her. She scoffed at his sudden show of manners and her hand found a lightswitch on the wall. The room was filled with scrolls, so she stood in the middle of the room and admired the collection, a sinful part of herself telling her to rob the village blind. His gloved hand settled on her shoulder and he pointed to a spot across the room. She slapped his hand away from her and he chuckled, clearly amused at her behavior.

“What are the limits of your sensory skills?” Like she wanted, she collected the scroll for her mission and began to search for other things of value. The question was reminiscent of his question about her ability to sense jinchuriki. She didn’t think she had limits, when it came to sensing such strong chakra signatures. She could pinpoint them all from where she stood. For them, they had nowhere to hide. She let him suffer in silence until he finally attempted to use killing intent on her. In response, she flared her own chakra, a warning that he shouldn’t test her. “It’s a simple question, Kana.” The way he said her name, the way he seemed to purr and his chakra seemed to entice her, had her looking over her shoulder at him. “I’m letting you steal precious things from the Mizukage right now. The least you could do is answer my question. Or do I need to show you how powerful I really am?”

“Don’t threaten me,” Kana scowled, turning away from the shelf to face him. Leaning against the wall beside the door, he had his arms crossed over his chest. He’d threatened her while in such a relaxed position, and Kana thought that was dangerous too. “I’m not interested in your puppet show, and I’m not giving away valuable information to an enemy.”

She found one other useful scroll amongst the collection, one on barrier seals that included more information than she’d found in Konoha. As she tucked the two scrolls into her kunai pouch, she kept her eyes on the man opposite of her. When she took a step toward the door, he moved to block her escape. She threw three shuriken at him that passed right through his body, then he walked toward her, further limiting her movements. The kunai she drew was useless, as he caught her wrist. She activated her sharingan and she saw the sharingan pattern in the man’s lone eye. The man’s chakra was foreign to her, one she’d never encountered before, but she hadn’t met every person in her clan. The man was obviously a missing nin, judging by his presence in Kirigakure. She tried kneeing him in the stomach, but he blocked her strike with a hand. She tried punching him, but he caught her fist and twisted it until she thought he might break it. Her mangekyou wasn’t wasted on him. As she tried burying false memories meant to quickly overtake his mind, he began to shake his head and growl in frustration. He backhanded her and she kicked him in his side hard enough to send him sliding into the wall. Spitting the blood from her mouth, she flipped him off and ran for it. She found Kakashi locked in a fight with Yagura, which she quickly ended with her mangekyou. There was a layer of genjutsu over the Mizukage, one she suspected was cast by the sharingan, or maybe a seal she had yet to find under the man’s overwhelming chakra.

“I got the scroll.”

“You disappeared.”

“An opportunity presented itself and fortune favors the bold.”

Kakashi grabbed her arm and they hurried to the windows, throwing one open so they could escape into the night. When the village sirens went off, they were already on the outskirts of the village. Kakashi’s hold on her arm was bruising, and when he didn’t show signs of releasing her, she purposely stomped on his foot. He shoved her away from him and she stumbled for a step before recovering. She couldn’t see the expression on his face, but she saw the sharingan eye staring back at her. It wasn’t a moment to remember. She’d angered him with what he clearly deemed a reckless decision. He didn’t speak to her for the duration of their trip to the meeting point, making her feel like a child with his immature silent treatment. They made contact with the same ship they’d departed, and they made it on board just as the ship was pulling away from the shore. Kana felt the chakra signatures of numerous shinobi scouring the island nation for them, so they took refuge below deck, where Kakashi continued ignoring her, despite the fact that they shared a room. When she’d tired of his agitation and the clear displeasure expressed by his tightly suppressed chakra, she grabbed his mask and ripped it from his face. He scowled at her and she pulled it out of his reach, forcing him to enter her personal space. As a way of getting even, he ripped the hawk mask from her face and threw it across the room, where it connected with a thump and clattered to the floor.

“I retrieved the scroll we needed. The mission is complete.”

“Where were you?”

“Getting the scroll!”

“You ran off without alerting me! What if something had happened to you?” He shoved her shoulders and she fell down onto the bottom bunk, so she stood and shoved him back. Unlike her, he didn’t budge. Frustrated, she slapped his chest and he grunted at her. Shoving her down to the bunk a second time, he stepped back and fixed her with the angriest expression she’d ever seen from him. He ran his hands over his face and turned his back to her, while she remained seated, glaring at his back. “When you joined my team, I told you I wouldn’t tolerate your impulsive bullshit, Kana, and I meant it. What you did was incredibly stupid and it could have killed both of us.”

“The mission is complete!” Kana yelled at him again, unconcerned with the fact that anyone nearby could hear their heated argument. He rounded on her and grabbed the front of her armor to drag her to her feet. He’d once told her that the lives of his comrades meant more than successful missions, and the echo of those words in her mind was deafening. She wasn’t afraid of him, but she also knew that wasn’t his goal. She placed her hands over his and tried to pry them off of her, but he only lifted her from the floor. “Fine! It was reckless! What do you want me to say? I’m sorry? Is that going to let you sleep tonight? Then I’m fucking sorry!” He dropped her and she hit her head off the ladder leading to the top bunk. He turned away and started removing his armor, leaving her to stew in her anger. His chakra signature was wild. She shoved his back and he stumbled forward two steps before rounding on her. “I said sorry!”

“You’re not sorry. At least have the decency not to lie to my face.”

He dropped his armor onto the floor and she grabbed the front of his shirt and drew him in for a bruising kiss. His hands went to her hips, so she kissed him again, peppering feverish kisses on his lips and his jaw. When she felt him undoing her armor, she pulled back to help him. They communicated best with rough sex. She understood that—they both understood that. There was absolutely no room for them to have sex in their beds, so he lifted her from the floor, she wrapped her legs around him, and he carried her into the bathroom, stealing rough kisses as they went. They took refuge in the shower, where the steam gathered around them, cloaking their naked bodies. He fucked her against the shower wall, her breasts pressed so tightly against it that it was painful. Her hands searched for something to hold onto, but she ended up placing one hand against the shower wall to her right, while her other hand wrapped around the edge of the curtain. He was purposely rough with her and she moved to meet his every thrust, chasing pleasure in the way he left bruises on her skin. She thought he might wrap his hand around her throat, so when he turned her around, grabbed one of her legs, and continued, she wasn’t surprised when he pinned her against the wall again, her back against the slippery tiles. The heat and the feel of his hand on her neck had her seeing stars, but he didn’t stop when she came. He took his frustrations out on her by giving her bliss. She couldn’t escape the thought that his worry translated to something frightening. He groaned low when he came, and he immediately dropped her left leg to focus on showering.

“Kakashi, I—,” she began, cut off by the hand he put up. Brows furrowed, she closed her mouth. His next words sounded tired, and she attributed it to the sex rather than anything emotional. She wanted to believe there was nothing complex between them, so she did.

“Not now, Kana.” He dipped his head under the stream of lukewarm water and she hovered at his back, some of that same exhaustion seeping into her bones.

What if something had happened to her?

Chapter Text

The first time she felt embers creeping along her spine, tickling her senses, she threw a vase that phased right through the man seated on her windowsill and shattered her window. He turned to watch the broken glass rain down on the street below, then he chuckled. She tried punching him, but he blocked, so she smacked him in the face with her lamp and his mask cracked, the only hit she managed to get in during their scuffle. Just as she’d thought, he could enter and exit the village without ever passing through the barrier or registering at the gate. Flat on her back, her lip busted and bleeding, she glared at the man kneeling over her and spat blood in his face. The droplets hit his mask and he curled a hand around her throat and squeezed. She laughed at his intimidation attempt, even as black spots danced in her line of sight. She was half dead inside, or she felt that way, at least.

Before she lost consciousness, he removed his hand and she took shaky breaths to feed her aching chest. She focused on his sharingan eye, the only thing she’d seen as her vision began to fade. Either he’d stolen the eye, or he was a traitor, and she hated both scenarios. He pressed his hand to her cheek and turned her head to either side, admiring the mangekyou pattern in her eyes. When they made eye contact, she tried looping his worst memories, injecting poison into his mind, so he slapped her hard and she knocked her head off the coffee table. He left without a word. Hours later, Kakashi found her lying there, with dried blood on her lower lip and an aching lump on her scalp. Together, they covered her window with plastic and stapled it in place. He didn’t ask her what had happened, but she knew by the way he eyed the broken pieces of her lamp and the remaining jagged edges of glass in her window that he wanted an explanation. As she leaned against her kitchen counter, he grabbed an ice pack from her freezer and she placed it against the throbbing lump on her head.

“He broke into my apartment. The guy pulling the strings in Kirigakure.”

“What did he want?”

“He’s interested in my sensory skills. He already knows I’m not going to help him. He can phase through objects. I decided to throw a vase at him and it went through my window. I broke my lamp and cracked his mask, but I couldn’t get a look at his face. He has the sharingan, like I said in my report.”

“Hm. We should report this to the police and the Hokage.”

“The military police force is a joke. They couldn’t solve their way out of a wet paper bag.” He snorted at her words, but he didn’t defend the police, since he felt the same way. The force favored certain parties and let cases go cold when they didn’t interest them. Over the years, their behavior had gotten worse. Kakashi didn’t report a single incident to the force because he knew it was a wasted endeavor. Kana touched her aching lower lip and he took her hand to prevent her from picking at the scab. “There isn’t much we can do if he can come and go as he pleases. I watched him disappear.” He gave her a disapproving look, so she huffed and turned her head away to avoid looking at his visible eye.

In the end, he convinced her to leave a detailed report with the Hokage. Like she’d stated, there wasn’t much the Hokage could do, except increase patrols and have a sensor focused on the Uchiha district. She doubted the abilities of other sensors because she’d surpassed them. While Kakashi had originally visited for an evening tryst, they found themselves sharing awkward silence in her living room. Yokosuka used the arrangement to get extra attention from them, constantly brushing against their legs and walking across their laps. Kana thought that Kakashi would make a move if she moved closer to him, so she leaned against his side and he ran a hand along her left thigh. Every pass of his hand took him higher, then he slid his hand along her inner thigh and she waited, but he stopped. Frowning, she placed her hand over his and guided it between her legs. The sigh he gave her contrasted sharply with the way he rubbed her through her clothes. He wasn’t interested, so she moved away from him again, sitting on the opposite side of the couch.

“Your face is red where he slapped you,” Kakashi pointed out, his focus on the red mark on her cheek. She raised a hand to touch her cheek, remembering the harsh slap she’d received for fucking with the man's mind. Her cheek was sore, but the pain didn’t bother her, not with the throbbing lump on her head. He didn’t ask her to stay, but it became obvious that he wasn’t leaving. “I think we should talk.” She hated those words—she’d always hated those words. When men wanted to talk to her, they wanted to leave her. She was accustomed to losing sexual partners, but she genuinely enjoyed sleeping with him. “About what happened on the ship,” Kakashi started, clearly forcing himself to broach the subject.

“I really hope you aren’t going to waste an apology on me, because it was no different than every other time we’ve slept together.”

“Ah.”

“That’s what you wanted to say, wasn’t it?”

He rubbed the back of his head, visible eye darting to the left to avoid looking at her. It wasn’t what he’d wanted to say and she knew it just with his body language. He was an open book in that sense, at least with her. She’d made them iced tea with lemon, so she took a quick drink to avoid trying to pick his mind apart. He rubbed his hands over his face and leaned forward to rest his elbows on his legs. Yokosuka had disappeared, or she might have rubbed against his legs for attention. Kakashi wasn’t always able to communicate what he was thinking or feeling, and she was the same way. Kana couldn’t find a reason for his behavior, other than the fact that he’d been furious about her decision to go off with an unknown, presumably dangerous, man. His question echoed in her mind, like it did that night in the shower, where he’d turned his back on her and refused to speak to her for the duration of the journey home. She hated that she had a feeling she knew exactly what he wanted to say, and she prayed with everything she had that he wouldn’t say it aloud. She didn’t think either of them would recover. And maybe she had the same thoughts and feelings, but she stuffed them down, hiding them in crevices in her body. She still felt as if she was waiting for Kaisei to return, even though she knew it wasn’t going to happen.

“Yeah,” he finally answered, chuckling to himself, “that’s exactly what I wanted to say.” He lied to her, and she liked that. She moved closer to lean against him again and he draped an arm over her shoulders. They stayed that way for an hour before Kana yawned and let her eyes fall shut. When she opened her eyes again, she was in bed. She reached out to the other side of the bed and her palm met his side. Wordlessly, she curled up at his back. He’d lied to her, so she lied to herself too.

Chapter Text

The second time she felt the burning embers of his chakra signature, she was deep in the backwoods of the Land of Grass, hunting for leads on Orochimaru. The mission was nothing but reconnaissance, at its core. She wasn’t supposed to engage with the sannin, just ascertain his whereabouts and alert the hunter nin of his confirmed presence in Grass. Orochimaru was a pet project for the Hokage. The man was too soft and lenient for his position, and she hated agreeing with the council. Orochimaru always seemed to slip right through their fingers, and it was too convenient. Kana had asked Kakashi about the sannin and his failed retrieval missions, and Kakashi reiterated the need for reconnaissance and not engagement. He’d described Orochimaru’s killing intent as being enough to freeze him on the spot, and he fully believed that he’d been shown mercy. Kana chased the thrill, following the trail from Kusagakure to northern Grass, where the hills were nothing but seas of trees. With the burning embers of his chakra signature pressing down on her, she chose to pause her journey and wait for him to show himself. He didn’t disappoint.

“So you’re a stalker, is that it?” He sat on a tree branch again, though he wore a black robe with red clouds. The cloak reminded her of something she couldn’t quite place. It didn’t look like his style, since he’d opted for all black during their last two meetings. She expected him to have some smart retort, but he remained eerily silent. “You want to know what I can sense? Your chakra signature is the weirdest shit I’ve ever felt. One is stronger, more dominant, and that reminds me of embers; one seems like it’s everywhere, but it’s focused to one side, almost like a second skin; and one is like a pulse, right over your heart. The one coming from your heart is the worst. It doesn’t circulate. It sits there.” He tipped his head to the side, like he hadn’t expected her to confess such things to him.

Since he chose silence, she turned and continued walking. The feeling of embers followed her, as if he existed to hover at the edges, out of reach but present. He followed her along the outskirts of a large village, as if he were mimicking her steps. She’d planned on stopping, but she reconsidered, torn between finishing up her search and returning to Konoha or taking a rest and facing the stalker at her back. Kana stared at the village entrance for so long that the man reached her side, clearly tired of her stalling. Clenching her fists at her side, she strode into the village and scoured the streets for a decent place to sleep; again, embers followed along behind her, reminding her that either decision would have ended the same. The inn that she chose had rooms available. When she had to pay, she jabbed a thumb over her shoulder at the man clearly standing several feet behind her. She took her room key and left him to deal with the owner, secretly pleased with herself for dodging a bill. In her room, she slammed the door behind her, but the closed door made no difference—the man walked right through it. He hadn’t attacked, and he’d had plenty of time to make the move, so she felt confident that he wouldn’t try anything in the privacy of her room.

“You can tell all of that from my chakra signature?”

“Yeah, because I’m not a shit sensor like most of the sensors in Konoha. Whatever you have going on screams danger. So you might be having this casual conversation with me, but your chakra signature isn’t calm. If I had to guess, I’d say you specialize in fire release, not that it’s a surprise, since you’re an Uchiha. Fires can get out of control pretty fast.”

“I never said I was an Uchiha. What makes you think I’m above dojutsu theft?”

“You didn’t try to carve out my eyes yet. They’re typically hoarders.” The man took a seat on her bed, content to relax on the comfortable mattress. She rolled her eyes at him, unwilling to sit beside him, even after he patted the spot to his right. He leaned back on his hands and watched her take a seat across the room. The chair wasn’t as comfortable at the bed, but it was enough for her, especially after days of camping out. “I don’t know what your plans are, but you’re wasting your time on me. I’m a loyal shinobi.” He snorted at the words and she narrowed her eyes at him. “That’s rich, coming from a missing nin.” He chuckled and the sound sent a chill down her spine. There was a spark in his signature, the subtle fluctuation enough to set her on edge again. He didn’t like what she’d said.

“You’re loyal to a village that treats you like a pawn, and when you’ve served your purpose, it will no longer care about you. You’re forgettable, replaceable, just like everyone else in Konoha. It’s a root problem. The foundation of the shinobi system, both in Konoha and in other hidden villages, is broken. You’ve been to war, Kana. And there will be another war and another war, mass casualties over petty things, like land or resources or hurt feelings, things that could be resolved politically turned militaristic. And the people suffer for it. You’ve lost someone, haven’t you?” She bristled at the mention of her own loss, unwilling to mention Kaisei’s name, unwilling to share that part of herself with a stranger. Many lives were lost in the third war and in the pop-up battles following what should have been a clear ending. He shrugged his shoulders at her. “Konoha doesn’t care about you. Your loyalty benefits the village, and you get nothing in return. Your whole clan gets nothing in return. Suspicion, perhaps. Moved closer, under a watchful eye, a plant left to flourish in the dark. You’re lesser than just for being born an Uchiha. The village is a lost cause, and I intend to fix that.”

“You sound batshit.” Kana glowered at him and he laughed at her words, taking them like a grain of salt. He had something against Konoha, so something had obviously happened to him to drive him away. She’d never considered leaving the village, though she had different views since Kaisei’s passing. She had little faith in the Hokage, for one. She was bitter about being a child soldier, passed around between teams for weeks at a time, being used and used until she felt like she had nothing left to give, and the village always asked for more. He sounded insane, but he spoke the truth. She couldn’t imagine a single man challenging every hidden village in existence. “So you’ll destroy it? That’s your goal? To end all wars with another war? That’s killing more people. You don’t need war to achieve a peaceful goal.”

“If it’s war they want, then war is a price I’m willing to pay to destroy the rotten foundation and restore peace to the world. To be honest, it would be much easier if they listened to reason, but it’s difficult to talk sense to idiots.” He shrugged again and she wrinkled her nose, whether at his word choice or the truth, she didn’t know. “I want a world where no one knows the feeling of loss, where there are no orphans born of war, where children no longer have to fight battles started by men removed from the battlefield. No one would ever feel what you feel, Kana.” She knew that he was appealing to her emotions, ones better left unexpressed. She hated that he made perfect sense. He didn’t want a war at all, but war was all the hidden villages seemed to know. She wanted to believe that a peaceful world was possible, even if she thought her hands were too stained with blood. “I want your help, Kana. You can help make my dream a reality.”

“What makes you think two people can revolutionize the hidden villages of the world?”

“Because of my project, Tsuki no Me. The Eye of the Moon Plan. We’ll bring the world to its knees and save them from themselves.”

“Who the hell are you?”

He reached up to remove his mask and her eyes widened. She was staring at a dead man.

Chapter Text

The reconnaissance mission had led to numerous dead ends, but she wasn't surprised. When Orochimaru wanted to hide, the man hid well. Obito had accompanied her for the duration of her trip through the Land of Grass, not that he'd asked for permission, not that she'd granted him permission. After the reveal in her bedroom, he made it very clear that he didn't want her calling him Obito. When she'd said his name for the first time, he'd growled and told her never to use the name again. His flare of anger caught her off guard. His reaction spoke about the life he'd had since his last recorded mission. She couldn't imagine him being angry enough to forsake his own name. While he'd insisted she call him Madara, she'd outright refused, so they settled on the nickname Tobi.

He didn't ask her about her sensory abilities again or her mission details, so she supplied no information. His chakra signature was still wild, but she learned to ignore the constant war going on with his three parts. As soon as she crossed the border into the Land of Fire, he promised to visit her in three days, as if they made appointments with one another. When he vanished, she finally felt like she could breathe again. She didn't like that Obito. He was a husk of his former self, trash discarded in the world. The village had thrown him away.

Her mission report included only the basics and any important details related to her search for the sannin. She concluded it by declaring the tip a false lead, one of many collected over the years. She thought she might have time to herself, but she found her brother waiting outside of her apartment building. Even though she wanted to turn and leave, she kept her approach. He had a cat carrier next to his feet and a cigarette between his lips. She made a face when he blew his smoke at her, then she grabbed the cat carrier and went inside, wasting no words on the man. Instead of leaving, he followed her up the stairs to her apartment. She didn't feel like arguing with him when she had so much on her mind, but he stuck his foot between the door and the frame when she tried to shut him out.

"I know about your intruder. This visit is strictly business. Do you mind not crushing my foot?"

"You don't give a shit about me, so save it. I'm not interested in filing a report with your station."

"Yeah, I'm not too thrilled to be here either, but this came from the Hokage. Can you actually cooperate for once in your miserable life?"

"It's only miserable because you're in my face right now."

Scowling, she stopped pushing on the door and reluctantly allowed her brother into her apartment. He looked around, clearly judging her interior decorating skills. She led him into the small kitchen because she didn't think he deserved a seat on her couch. As it was, he'd only visited because of Yokosuka. Some part of her hated the wedge driven between her family and herself, but she didn't fit the mold. She was an outcast. He waited for her to offer him something to drink, but she didn't move from her spot. He rolled his eyes, but he produced a small notebook and a pen from his hip pouch, determined to do his job. He asked to see the damage, but she'd already had her broken window replaced and the pieces of the lamp were long gone. Maybe she should have saved them and preserved the scene, but she hadn't wanted the military police involved. The Hokage had washed his hands of her. And wasn't that typical.

"Did you get a good look at the intruder's face? Were there any defining features that might set him apart?" She thought of Obito, how the scars looked on his face. The scarring was a defining feature, as was his sharingan. She thought she'd reported the presence of the sharingan to the Hokage. With the option to confess that she knew the identity of the intruder, she chose to shake her head. She chose to lie. "Height or hair color? Are you sure he had the sharingan? That's highly unlikely, Kana."

"I thought I saw the sharingan." He made a note in his tiny notebook and she rolled her eyes, knowing he'd likely written off her statement. She didn't know why she chose to protect Obito. They'd barely interacted as children. Her brother had been one of Obito’s bullies. Obito’s plan was downright crazy, seeming impossible for two people or an army of people. She wanted to tell Kakashi, but she chose to protect him. Obito had changed, and Kakashi lived his life with the goal of making Obito proud. Kakashi loved Obito. It was painfully obvious that there was more than friendship in the short span of their relationship, even if Kakashi had masqueraded as a bully. And Obito had fallen for Rin. There was no place for Kakashi. Kana closed her eyes and thought of Obito’s face. The whole time, Hajime watched her.

"How certain are you?"

"I don't know, alright?" Another lie. She wondered if she’d eventually lose count.

"Kakashi didn't mention seeing it." The obvious doubt was buried in his tone.

"Then I fucking imagined it! Are we done here?"

Hajime flipped the notepad closed and took a deep breath, then he bent down to pet the cat brushing against his right leg. He didn’t look convinced, but she knew how to hide her emotions well. She held everything inside, so it wasn’t difficult for her to add another secret to her pile. She thought her brother would accuse her of lying, but his disinterest outweighed any investment in her safety. With the brief interview completed, Hajime had no reason to remain in her apartment. The sinking feeling in her stomach alerted her that he meant to confront her again about attending a family dinner. It was supposed to be a formal affair to celebrate Hajime’s wife and future son. She didn’t want to see her parents. She didn’t want to see her sister-in-law. She’d left home almost ten years ago, right after she’d made chunin. Her home had never been a safe space for her, and the negativity practically radiating from her parents left her anxious and angry most of the time. Her heart had hardened because of them, and Kaisei had been a savior. She’d basked in the light from his smiles and laughter. Without him, she had a family she wanted nothing to do with and an arrangement for rough sex that had become far too complicated.

“Mom’s asking about you again.”

“Is she still blaming me for her failures as a parent?”

“You were a problem child, and you grew into whatever the hell you want to call your mess.” Kana frowned at him and began to pick at the plum polish on her right thumb. She didn’t miss her parents’ backhanded compliments, and she didn’t miss her mother's obvious insults. “She’s our mother, Kana. She won’t be around forever. It’s one dinner, a special occasion,” Hajime stressed, clearly trying guilt and shame to manipulate her. She laughed at him and he frowned. She laughed because he actually thought appealing to her emotions would work. How many times had she told her parents to drop dead? “You’re still cold as ice, aren’t you? I don’t know how Kaisei put up with you.”

She slapped him before he even had a chance to blink. She’d used enough force to turn his head when her palm connected with his cheek. Hajime stared at her in shock, while she turned her back to him so he wouldn’t see the emotion in her eyes. He should have known better than to drag her dead lover into their conversation. She heard him snort, then she listened to the sound of his footsteps as he walked away. When he slammed her door, she pressed her hands over her face and sighed into her palms. An hour later, Kakashi found her leaning against her kitchen counter, a cup of cold coffee in her right hand. She’d added too much sugar, so she hadn’t been able to finish it. She ignored the rest of the pot to stare into space. She had three days to decide what she wanted to do with her life. She lived and breathed Konoha. Obito threatened her with the chance for something new. Silently, she offered her cup of coffee to Kakashi, but he felt the cold cup and dumped it down the drain. Neither of them liked reheated coffee.

“I’m really not in the mood tonight,” Kana sighed, weariness buried in the words. Kakashi set the empty cup on the side of the sink, knowing she would wash it and use it another time. She thought he would leave, because that was how they operated. Whenever feelings came up, they ran away. Kakashi hummed at her words, but he didn’t leave.

“Do you want to talk about it?” She looked up from the faded linoleum to judge his willingness by the expression he wore. He looked entirely out of his element, but she couldn’t help but smile. Some part of herself scolded her for feeling the warmth in her chest. Instead of declining, she took a few minutes to nibble on her bottom lip, absently picking at her chipped nail polish again. “I’m not going to force you to talk about it.”

“The police force is now in charge of my case, so they sent my brother to harass me for answers they don’t really care about, then he invited me to a family dinner for the thousandth time. He brought up—he touched a subject I didn’t like, so I slapped him.”

“Did you feel better after slapping him?”

“A little.”

“I’ve never liked him. He seems like an asshole, to be honest.”

“He really is. I should take you along as my plus one. Maybe my parents would croak on the spot.” She laughed at the thought of their expressions, and she saw the subtle curve of Kakashi’s lips through his mask. She didn’t expect him to shrug.

“Why not?” Her laughter faded, her humor retreating in her state of surprise. She wrinkled her nose as she considered her parents’ rude behavior whenever they cornered her into seeing them. She wouldn’t handle them treating Kakashi poorly. But he seemed so nonchalant about the idea that it made her consider his offer. “They already hate me, so I don’t have to bother pretending like I need their approval,” he said, adding another benefit to the table. Kakashi didn’t really care what people thought of him, not anymore. Or maybe it strictly applied to the Uchiha clan. She reached out to remove his hitai-ate and he opened his left eye so she could see the sharingan. “You have to admit it would be a good time.” She lowered his mask so she could see his entire face and one side of his lips quirked for a smile.

“They would ask about our relationship,” she frowned, though she leaned in to kiss him. They traded a few soft kisses before he pulled away. “You can’t expect me to tell them we’re just fucking,” she stated, her expression blank. She expected him to laugh, but he smirked. The devilish expression on his face was so out of place that she laughed. He honestly meant for her to tell the truth about them. “You have a real evil streak in you, don’t you, Hatake?”

“Maa, I might have picked up a thing or two from you.”

“The dinner is formal, Kakashi, kimono formal. Don’t you hate dressing up? Remember that mission to the Land of Rice Fields, when we had a formal dinner with the daimyo? You hated it.”

“I think aggravating them is worth the inconvenience.”

“It’s short notice, Kakashi. It’s tomorrow night.” She wasn’t sure he fully understood what he was signing up for, but he shrugged at her words, as if he didn’t mind the last-minute change to his schedule. “I guess I need to dig out a kimono again. We’ll both be drunk before the night is over. It’s the only way to stand them. Hopefully they bring out the good stuff.” Kakashi kissed her, cutting off anything she had to say. She still felt a sense of dread when she thought about the dinner, but her desire to give the middle finger to her family easily overpowered it.

Unsurprisingly, he stayed the night.

Chapter Text

He looked handsome in his kimono, the navy blue bringing out the color of his hair. She had him hovering in the doorway, his amusement hidden beneath the mask he refused to relinquish. She rested her hands on his chest and kissed him on the lips a few times, entirely unconcerned with what he thought of her attire or how she'd tamed her hair into a ponytail. She wore a black kimono with two hawks taking flight near the bottom. Her mother disapproved of the color black, unless a funeral was involved, but Kana had liked the color contrast between the black and the birds. Hands on her hips, Kakashi looked down at her kimono and smiled, his eyes on her obi that matched the birds. She considered ignoring the dinner invitation and taking the man to bed, but Kakashi reminded her of the time. They were punctual, which was partially new to him. After slipping their shoes on, Kana turned off the lights, and they began the slow walk to her parents' home.

With their relationship being a private one, they didn't touch one another in public, so they settled for walking next to each other. They didn't start a conversation, but Kana felt comfortable in his presence. Unlike usual, his posture was stiff, as if he was prepared for her parents. She pursed her lips as she considered canceling. He looked to his right and offered her a smile and she nudged her elbow against his arm. She didn't know why she thought of the secret she carried. Obito owed her a visit, and the date hovered over her head.

At her parents' home, she hesitated on the doorstep, so Kakashi knocked. She didn't expect a homecoming party, nothing special for her sudden appearance, so when her mother answered the door and frowned at her, she wasn't surprised. Akemi looked at her daughter, then focused on the man to Kana's left. Kakashi offered a fake, cheery smile, one Akemi didn't return. The woman's hesitation had them standing on the small porch.

"I hope you don't mind me bringing Kakashi."

"Must you collect trash, Kana? Honestly. You finally show up and you bring him."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Uchiha-san," Kakashi cut in, clearly unwilling to bow to the woman. Akemi grunted in response and stepped aside, allowing Kana and Kakashi entrance to the two-story home. "You have a lovely home." Kana coughed into her hand to cover a laugh, while Akemi looked Kakashi over from head to toe. It was as if the judgment passed from Kakashi to Kana.

"Black again. Where is the funeral? This is a celebration and you show up looking like this," Akemi lectured, clicking her tongue. "It can't be helped now."

Akemi led them into the living room, where Hajime and his wife, Nanami, shared stories about their hiking trip in the Land of Hot Water. Kana nodded to her father, Shou, but the man's eyes went right to Kakashi. Unlike Akemi, Shou was quiet and generally well behaved, though he'd always been strict with Kana. He'd pushed her to exceed expectations. He'd taught her the value of perfectionism. She took a lot from his teachings, but not everything. He'd raised her to be a better version of himself, something she hadn't learned until she'd made genin. Hajime took one look at Kakashi and snorted, so Kana accidentally stomped on his foot. Nanami's bright smile fell away, replaced by a scowl. Kana had never cared for the woman.

"Kakashi, yes?" Shou chose to speak and everyone listened. Kakashi nodded. Shou looked between Kana and Kakashi, then he frowned. "You and my daughter are," he trailed off, clearly expecting them to define their relationship. Kakashi looked at Kana, then he shrugged.

"We're sleeping together," he replied, ignoring Akemi's gasp. Brows furrowed, Shou accepted the news a little better than his wife, but he wasn't pleased. Kana sighed and rolled her eyes, but she didn't bother to scold him, not when she took joy in her parents' reactions. When Kakashi wanted to say more, Kana cleared her throat and he smirked at her when the attention turned to her.

"We didn't need to know that," Nanami frowned, her right hand settling over her round stomach. Hajime touched her stomach too and they shared a look that had Kana feeling ill. Sometimes she forgot that her brother had more to his personality than a lack of basic manners.

"You just had to say that, didn't you?" The words were whispered into Kakashi's ear and the man feigned innocence with the way his lips parted beneath his mask. She lightly slapped his thigh. "I thought you'd at least wait until dinner."

"I came here to bother them. It's amusing." She kissed his cheek and he placed his hand on her thigh. Shou watched them with sharp eyes, while Akemi complimented Nanami's pink kimono. The flowers were too much, in Kana's opinion. Kakashi thought the same, since he leaned over and whispered. "I think you look nice." It was a simple compliment, but she grinned at the words and rested her hand over his.

"I like this. You're a decent human being, Hatake."

"I'm blushing, Kana."

That evening, she saw another side of him. While her mother focused every topic on Nanami's pregnancy, Kana chose to focus on refilling her wine glass. Kakashi cleared his plate and downed his wine without revealing his face, so she kept refilling his glass whenever she thought they could use a stiff drink. Shou looked between the two with a deep frown, but he didn't say anything to interrupt Akemi. Hajime was the one to bring up Kana's open case with the police force, which was against policy. Kakashi gave him a disapproving look, but Hajime had kept his own wine flowing. Kana stuffed a cooked pepper into her mouth while her family waited for her to tell her side of the story.

"She thinks she saw the sharingan," Hajime mocked, earning a laugh from their mother. Kana was used to her mother and her brother, so their mocking behavior didn't bother her. She'd outgrown the days where their words had hurt her. "Did you decide on what this imaginary Uchiha looks like?"

"Not quite as ugly as you, and he has better manners." Kana smiled sweetly and Hajime scowled at her. Before Hajime could retort, Shou said his son's name, a subtle warning. When her parents looked away, Kana flipped her brother off.

"Hatake-san, I've heard absolutely nothing about you from my daughter," Shou spoke, clearly attempting to draw information from Kakashi. Kana filled her wine glass to the rim, emptying a second bottle for the table. She considered herself taking Nanami's portion.

"Kakashi. And there isn't much to tell."

"Have you cleared your name?"

"Hm. If you're referencing my father's passing, then I would say no. If you're referencing my title as a friend killer, then I would say probably not."

"Do you plan on marrying my daughter, Kakashi?"

"Dad." Kana frowned at him and set her wine glass down a little too hard. Shou didn't look at her, clearly waiting for a response from Kakashi. Kana regretted attending the dinner, but Kakashi seemed as if the question hadn't bothered him. "Let's get the fuck out of here." Her legs and feet had fallen asleep from sitting in seiza for so long. Kakashi stopped her from rising, even as Akemi scolded her for her language.

"We're content with the way things are, so no, I don't plan on marrying her. We just enjoy sleeping together. Thank you for the lovely meal." Kakashi offered them a fake smile and he got to his feet, Kana following. Akemi threw her napkin down on her plate.

"This ends now, Kana. Being with him is shameful. There's a reason why he's the last of his clan."

"I really don't care what you think, and to be honest, being around you makes me wish I was the last of my clan too."

"Our clan is a point of pride, Kana. How dare you say such a thing. You should know your place."

"I do. Under Kakashi."

Kana took Kakashi's right hand in hers and proceeded to lead him out of the dining room, leaving her mother to rant. She heard Nanami attempting to calm the woman down, but she slammed the front door and their chaos remained inside. They slipped their shoes on as they stood on the small porch, then Kakashi chuckled, breaking the tense air between them. Kana cracked a smile, but a growl of frustration quickly followed. Overall, the dinner had been horrible. She wondered if the things her parents had said truly bothered him. Kakashi seemed numb, or maybe he hid his true feelings behind his fake smiles.

"I'm sorry about that."

"I've heard it all before."

"That doesn't make it alright."

"Hm. So your place is under me?"

Kana knew he meant to change the subject, and she didn't want to delve into his life story; she knew he came with a lot of baggage and they had a silent agreement not to attempt unpacking it. Instead, she laughed at his playful tone. She thought he might let it go, but she felt his hand squeeze her ass. They hid a lot, both from themselves and each other, so she wasn't surprised when he chose to focus on the connection they shared. Her apartment was quiet without him. So when they passed the road leading out of the district, she knew that he'd invited himself. Her elbow found his side and he tugged on her ponytail. When they reached her apartment, Yokosuka greeted them at the door and circled around their legs, indicating that she wanted food and fresh water. Kakashi made himself comfortable on her bed, while she took care of her cat. Once Yokosuka had her face in the bowl, the cat let Kana join Kakashi upstairs. Kakashi was in the middle of removing his kimono, so she got to see the scars on his back. He didn’t have many scars, but the ones he had were pale, some jagged and others smooth. She ran her hand along his spine and he stopped undressing to feel her fingers against his skin.

“Aren’t you going to undress?”

“And miss this peep show? Not a chance.”

As his clothing hit the floor, she appreciated every inch of his exposed body, then he insisted on undressing her. It was another new experience, given the fact that they typically tore at one another. She told herself there was nothing unusual. She lied to herself when he took his time exploring her body, where he usually selfishly chased his own pleasure. She asked him if he planned on staying. When she woke up the next morning, he was still next to her. He didn’t leave until noon.

Chapter Text

On the third night, Obito appeared. She’d been expecting him, but his entrance still startled her. Without thinking, she threw her bowl of rice at him and it passed right through him. The bowl shattered when it hit her wall, sending food and broken stoneware onto her floor. He glanced over his shoulder at the mess, while she covered her face with her hands and tried to calm her racing heart. That day, Kakashi had gone on a mission, returning around dinner, which meant she had her apartment to herself. Her hands still covering her face, she felt the couch dip next to her. He didn’t hover in the middle of her living room, looking as out of place as he must have felt. Feeling calmer, she moved her hands and looked at the remainder of her food sitting on her coffee table. Anyone else might have offered him food, but she didn’t want him to feel welcome in her apartment. Their meeting was strictly business.

“Did you have to throw a bowl at me?”

“Did you have to appear in the middle of my apartment?”

“Yes.”

“Then yes.”

He snorted at her response, as close as she would get to a laugh. His posture was still stiff, even though he sat on her couch. She tried to imagine what his life was like as a missing nin, but she shoved those thoughts aside when he picked at a stray cottonwood seed on his cloak. Black with red clouds. He’d ventured somewhere with poplar trees to account for the cotton. That limited him to the western part of the world. She didn’t ask. She didn’t think he would supply an answer. What he did in his free time didn’t concern her. She thought of Tsuki no Me and everything that mission meant for the world. Three days had given her little time to consider his offer. And in the end, she wondered if she even had a choice. He wanted her for his grand scheme. For some reason, Kana thought of Kakashi. She wondered what would happen if she left him like everyone else had left him. What they had was complicated, and she knew her feelings ran deeper than they should have, given the agreement they’d made at the beginning of their relationship.

“You aren’t giving me a choice.” The statement was met with silence. She sighed into her hands and tried to think of her place in the village and all that she had accomplished in her years as a shinobi. She had achieved most of her goals and made a decent living. Leaving meant throwing it all away. “If I don’t go with you, then you’ll kidnap me then?”

“You can come with me willingly or I can kill Kakashi.” He was nonchalant in his approach, his tone straightforward, like his actions. He hadn’t lied to her, so she knew he wasn’t bluffing. Despite Kakashi’s strength, she didn’t think he could take on someone capable of dodging attacks. Kana picked at her thumb nail, peeling off pristine red polish. “I gave you three days, and that’s all I’m willing to give you. Take what you need and meet me at the gate to the Uchiha district. It’s going to be a long night.” Yokosuka approached Obito and he ran his hand along the cat’s back, as if he hadn’t just threatened Kakashi’s life. “Don’t make me come and find you.” His parting words were just as cruel as his threat. She sat there for minutes too long, going over her two options. In reality, she had no choice. She wouldn’t allow Obito to hurt Kakashi. Fighting him was still a possibility, but if she lost, he would kill Kakashi. Yokosuka looked up at her from her feet and meowed.

“Yeah, I hate it too.”

She packed her weapons in storage scrolls and filled some with clothing and a first-aid kit. As she moved around her apartment, Yokosuka followed her, as if the cat knew their time together had come to an end. She recalled the moment she met the stray cat, how emaciated the cat had been, but so willing to give and take love. Her brother was the best option, as the man liked the cat, but she didn’t trust him. After she’d finished packing, Kana loaded Yokosuka into the pet carrier she had and balanced a box on top of it that contained food, a food bowl, and a water bowl. The note she’d written had gone through seven rough drafts, then she decided to keep it short and sweet, a message that she wasn’t gone, a message that she was still out there. She chose to give Yokosuka to Kakashi.

Kana watched from a distance as he opened his apartment door. He looked down at the pet carrier and the box of items, then he took her note from atop the carrier. She’d told him to look after Yokosuka, that she’d be back for her, and she expected her to be in the same condition. She’d signed the message with love, all of the love she had left. She wasn’t surprised when he disappeared in a swirl of leaves. He would break into her apartment. He would see the empty dresser drawers and the bare clothes hangers. Closing her eyes, she tried not to think of the scene, but her mind filled in the blanks. She’d left him too.

She expected a brief meeting with Obito, so when she saw Itachi with him, she knew the boy had likely been drawn into the same mess. The last she’d heard, he’d murdered his best friend for the mangekyou sharingan. He nodded at her in greeting, then he took to the rooftops. Her mask over her face, Obito motioned for her to follow him, then he led her to her parents’ house. She didn’t need to ask to know that he’d spied on her. He unsheathed her wakizashi and set the blade on her palms.

“Kill them.”

Kana looked down at the blade, then at his visible eye. Her blade was cool against her palms, the sharpened edge delicately balanced, though it wanted to bite into her flesh. She didn’t get along with her parents, but she didn’t want to kill them. She was reminded of the harsh words she’d spoken over dinner. When Obito continued on his mission to aid Itachi, Kana turned to look at the front door. There was a flower box hanging over the porch railing and the new flowers were bright in the moonlight. The home was dark, though the front room had light coming from the small television. Her dad liked staying up to watch reruns of movies he’d seen hundreds of times. Knowing he was likely awake had her hesitating on the porch. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath, forcing herself into her ANBU mindframe to keep herself going. She slipped inside the home without making a sound. Just as she’d thought, her father was seated in his favorite chair, though he turned his head to see her. He saw the light from the television reflecting off her blade and she saw the sadness on his face, the first time he’d shown such a genuine emotion. Her heart ached.

“I’m sorry, Kana.”

The apology was for her hard life, all encompassing without being too specific. She hesitated, so he stood and walked toward her. She let him close the distance between them, thinking that they would have a fight that would draw her mother downstairs and alert their neighbors. He placed his hand over hers and eased the blade from her shaking hands. He saw the tears gathered in her eyes. She didn’t know if she cried because of his apology or the fact that she meant to erase whatever relationship they might have had following that night. His hold was awkward, the blade too large for his intentions. She opened her mouth to tell him to stop, but he slit open his stomach in one jerky motion. She caught him as he fell, her blade clattering to the floor, forgotten in her haste to catch him. Lowering him to the floor, she pressed her gloved hands over his wound and tried to stop the blood. The front door slammed open when she’d fallen into sobs. Kakashi found her desperately trying to save a man who’d already passed away. She heard her mother call out her father’s name.

“Kana,” Kakashi managed to say, slipping in the blood on the hardwood floor. It was obvious that the man had taken his own life, but Kakashi had assessed the situation. She hadn’t visited in her ANBU gear to see her parents. She scrambled out of his reach, knocking her sword farther from her reach. “What are you doing?” He tried to touch her and she slapped his hand away, even though she wanted him to hold her and tell her that she hadn’t seen her father take his own life.

“Shou?” Her mother stood in the doorway, a robe over her pink nightgown. Her eyes went to her husband’s body and she opened her mouth for a scream, but Kana threw a kunai that lodged in the woman’s throat. Kakashi tried to catch the woman, but he hesitated too long. Kana heard the sickening thud as her mother’s skull connected with the floor.

“I’m sorry, Kakashi,” Kana spoke, her voice hoarse. Her words were shaky, spoken as she struggled to gather herself. He dodged the kunai she threw at him, and she wondered if he’d noticed that she’d thrown it too far to one side anyway. He didn’t know whether he wanted to grab her or fight her. They made eye contact, but he said her name. She’d wanted to save him the pain, to void any memories they shared together, to wipe her from his mind.

“Don’t do it.”

She swung at him and he blocked her fist with his arm. He tried to swipe her legs from beneath her, but they slipped in the blood. He ducked as she threw another punch and his fist connected with her stomach. The emotion he’d shown her moments before had disappeared, just like she meant to disappear. And it was easier that way. They both heard footsteps in the front hall. When they looked, Kana saw Obito’s signature mask and she took that moment to strike Kakashi in the back of the head. She caught him as he fell and laid him on the ground, away from the pools of blood left from her parents’ deaths. She apologized to his still form, even as Obito watched her. She collected her wakizashi from the floor and sheathed it, then she pushed past Obito and left the home. He followed her outside several minutes later. There had been a flicker of warm embers, there and gone, showing that he’d left and returned. She wondered how she’d missed the familiar static of Kakashi’s chakra, how she could have been so far gone to miss something she’d counted on for so long.

“My brother next?”

“Make it quick. We’re running out of time. We’ve killed everyone else.”

“In such a short amount of time?”

“This isn’t my first time, Kana.”

The words hit her and she gritted her teeth. Turning away, she descended the front steps and left her parents’ bodies behind, sending a silent goodbye to tulips that would wilt without her mother’s careful hands. Her brother and sister-in-law were asleep when she found them. She stood at his bedside and watched them sleep, his soft snoring like a cadence, a reminder that she needed to act. It was a mercy killing. She told herself whatever she needed to tell herself to kill them. She chose to slit their throats with a kunai. Nanami had awoken at the sound of Hajime’s bloody choking, but Kana had caught the woman by her hair. Closing her eyes, Kana stabbed the woman in the stomach, trying to forget the fact that the woman had been carrying another life, one she extinguished. Obito found her sitting at the bottom of their bed, her head in her hands. She saw him pluck her brother’s eyes from the man’s corpse and there was a flicker of warmth as Obito disappeared and reappeared. She wondered if he’d stolen all of the eyes.

“Itachi is waiting,” Obito said, the hint she needed to keep moving. By then, the village sirens had sounded, as if the world had known exactly how much time they’d needed to wipe out an entire clan. Kana wondered if someone else had contributed to the evening. “You did good, Kana.”

The words sounded like white noise.

Chapter Text

Konoha pursued them for seventeen days. For seventeen days, they traveled the smaller nations, drawing the trackers to multiple directions. When Kana announced that they were no longer being pursued, Obito led them to Amegakure, where the cold rain soaked them to the bone. Her mind went to Hanzo, and she was sure Itachi thought the same, as the younger teen took in their surroundings. Kana had never met Hanzo, the man a legend born of the Second Shinobi War.

She did sense seven radiating chakra signatures, their chakra so related that they felt as if the person had simply split in seven different directions. They were closer than relatives—she easily identified relatives. And the rain itself seemed to have a life of its own. The powerful chakra signatures and the stifling rain gave her a terrible headache. She would grow accustomed to the chakra that seemed to radiate from every direction, but that took time. Obito dragged them through the streets, the pace unrelenting since their hasty departure from Konoha. Obito had spoken to them over the course of their journey, but Kana and Itachi had remained silent. She knew the boy didn’t want to be there, and she didn’t want to be there. Kana wondered what dirt Obito had on Itachi to drag such a young boy into the mess known as Tsuki no Me.

“You’ll address me as Tobi for the remainder of our time together.” The words spoke of death. She already thought the mission was a suicide mission, but his words reinforced the fact. Itachi nodded, while Kana stared at the tall building in front of them. "I'm going to introduce you to the other two members of the organization."

"Organization? I thought," Kana trailed off, feeling the burn of betrayal. He'd made it seem as if he planned on doing everything alone. Behind her hawk mask, she scowled. Unlike her, Itachi simply nodded, his expression likely as blank as his weasel mask. "What's the name of this organization?"

"Akatsuki."

The inside of the building was surprisingly bare, as if it had been abandoned when the group claimed it for themselves. She felt surprisingly normal as they waited for the elevator to descend from what appeared to be the penthouse. Obito motioned for them to enter first; Itachi didn't hesitate, so Obito nudged her shoulder, forcing her to take that first step. The elevator doors closed, so she stared at their reflections. Itachi was short, looking so small in his ANBU gear. He looked as if he hadn't had time to gather belongings before he'd abandoned the village, hinting at a last-minute decision or a complete disregard for his own life. Kana kept replaying her last moments with Kakashi. He'd been blindsided, completely shocked by her actions. The finality and the hope she'd communicated with her note was lost the moment he saw her over her father's corpse. He would remember her that way.

The elevator chimed and the door slid open, letting them exit. A woman was waiting for them in the hallway, her purple hair topped with a delicate origami flower. Obito fell in step beside her, while Itachi and Kana trailed after them. She thought about running, something so unlike herself that it was jarring. The throbbing in her head grounded her. She tried rationalizing her situation, but that little part of herself still told her to run, to escape, to go fuck knew where. Itachi touched her shoulder and she looked over at him to see the same emotion mirrored in his eyes. He didn't want to be there either. The emotion vanished all at once, but she'd seen it. It had existed between them. So she buried that little voice, compartmentalizing as if she were on another difficult mission.

The first time she saw the rinnegan, her breath hitched and she recoiled. He was one of the seven signatures she'd felt. The other six were somewhere else, one more hidden away than the others. Beside her, Itachi even flinched, the sight of the rinnegan surprising him too. The man's chakra was cold, as cold as the rain they'd trudged through. It was a bitter cold that reeked of pessimism and hurt. Without knowing his feelings, she just knew. She'd never met a chakra signature like his before, and she didn't want to be in the same room with a man like him.

"Pein and Konan." Obito didn't bother with a better introduction, and he showed no signs of introducing Itachi or Kana. Frowning, Kana met Pein's eyes, the purple still bringing disgust from the pit of her stomach.

"You're the sensor." His voice wasn't what she was expecting. She didn't respond, so his attention shifted to Itachi. "I thought we agreed on one," he said, his eyes not straying from Itachi. "You're bringing me two." If the man's tone bothered him, Obito didn't show it. He answered Pein with a shrug, as if he couldn't care less about the miscommunication.

"He's invaluable," Obito explained. Kana had the feeling that Obito’s relationship with Pein existed solely for the purpose of Tsuki no Me. There was no respect between them. And while Pein acted like the one in charge, she knew that it wasn't the case, if not from her discussion on the night that Obito revealed his face to her, then by the way he shrugged off the man's annoyance. "They'll be working in pairs. We can start taking missions. For now, they can be partners."

"You kidnapped her." What made Obito think she wouldn't run away? She heard the question in that single statement and she wondered the same thing. Trusting her was a mistake and she would escape, given the opportunity.

"Kidnapped isn't really accurate, is it, Kana?" The way Obito said her name had her frowning. She thought of Kakashi. She thought of the fact that there was nowhere she could hide. Yes, he'd kidnapped her, but he believed he'd threatened her in a way that made it more like a subtle coercion.

"It's accurate. Give me the opportunity and I'll kill you and go home." Pein stared at her, clearly not amused with her response, while Konan threw a severe look at Obito. "I'm not here to be nice to you," Kana reminded them. She thought they might try using killing intent to manipulate her, so when they didn't, she was slightly disappointed.

"Until we can trust her to stay, she'll remain your responsibility," Pein decided, turning away from them.

There was a fluctuation in the man's chakra and another fluctuation at another point in the building, as if one had lost power while another regained power. She wondered if they were connected in some way. Konan led Itachi from the room, while Obito grabbed Kana's right wrist and dragged her out, clearly angry over her choice of words. His chakra felt as if he were moments from burning her alive, and then it was gone, the sudden drop-off leaving her with whiplash. He had a hot temper, one that burnt bright and quickly faded.

She'd heard that he was a goofy kid, utterly hopeless as a shinobi and easily overlooked for Kakashi, another member of his team. There was no part of that kid left, so she decided not to hold back. She yanked her hand out of his grasp and used the moment to punch him in the face. Her gloved fist connected with his mask and cracked it down the right side, a piece falling away to reveal his cheek. He countered her attack by grabbing her throat and slamming her into the wall. The impact was so hard that the wall cracked.

"I thought we had an understanding. I thought you understood the importance of our mission." He squeezed her throat too hard for her to respond, then he released her and listened to her coughing fit as she tried to get oxygen to her lungs. "We're creating a perfect world, Kana. The clan was a necessary sacrifice. You didn't even like your family. Or is this all because I threatened Kakashi?" He laughed as she glared at him. "He deserves to wallow in his own misery for the rest of his life." There was something deeply personal about his bitterness, and she wondered if it had to do with his final mission as a Konoha shinobi.

"It's cute how bitter you are over what happened almost a decade ago. Seems like you're the one wallowing in your own misery."

"How did you enjoy sobbing over your father's corpse?"

"No more than you enjoyed sobbing over your teammate's grave."

She took a chance and she pierced him with her words. When he slapped her, her head jerked to the side and she laughed at him, even as she spat blood into the floor. She'd been right to pick at the festering wound leftover from his own loss. Though he clearly wanted to strike her again, she saw him clench and relax his fists.

"You're lucky you're useful. I've killed people for a lot less." Obito grabbed her upper arm and shoved her to get her moving. "Since I'm stuck with you, we'll be heading out. I want to start the hunt for our next member."

She wondered if the other members would get the pleasure of an option, just like she'd received. When she lagged behind, he shoved her again. The elevator ride to the bottom floor was filled with awkward silence. She stared at the opening of his mask reflected in the elevator door, and he held eye contact with her reflection. The urge to use her mangekyou arose again, the temptation great enough to get her sharingan active.

"I don't need you for your eyes. I can easily blind you." Kana huffed at him and looked away, the red fading from her eyes. She thought she saw the subtle curve of his lips in his reflection, but the expression was fleeting. "Our target is Kakuzu, former shinobi of Takigakure. If we can't get him to join us, we can turn his head in for the bounty. Akatsuki needs funding."

"The cool cloaks don't pay for themselves."

"No, they don't."

On the bottom floor, he switched out masks and offered her a cloak just like his own. She bid goodbye to her hawk mask, discarding it as if it were trash. The line she carved through the hitai-ate around her throat marked the end of her career as a Konoha shinobi. She felt adrift.

Chapter Text

Tobi was an irritating man. The first time Obito slipped into that persona, she stared at him as if he’d lost whatever remained of his mind. He became unusually bubbly, a general goofball who grated on her nerves. He filled the silence with endless chatter, making comments about their surroundings and how she looked, the latter leaving her incredibly uncomfortable. She understood that he wanted to hide himself, to come off as entirely useless, but his commitment to the disguise was ridiculous. Sometimes he played hide-and-seek by himself, since she refused to entertain him; sometimes he played with her hair, until she slapped his hands away. She missed the version of him she’d first met. He enjoyed toying with her and testing her patience, and she had little patience left. She thought about frying him with a fireball, but her lips twitched for a frown. He would dodge, without a doubt, and she would have wasted chakra and energy on him. So she let him circle around her and play with squirrels they met along the road. When they came upon the first village in the Land of Fire, he ran off, leaving her standing at the entrance. Her heart told her to run, while her mind told her to stay. He noticed she hadn’t followed him and he came to collect her, taking her gloved hand in his. He swung their arms as she glared at anyone looking their way.

“Do you think they have good dango here, Kana-chan? Tobi loves dango!”

“How the fuck should I know?”

“Ooh, Kana-chan uses dirty words.”

“Are you going to act like a clown for the duration of this trip? Is this some kind of psychotic break?” He turned his head to look at her and she saw the corner of his eye crinkle as he smiled behind his mask. He tortured her with his stupid persona and enjoyed every minute of it. She tried to pull her hand from his hold, but he laced their fingers together and tugged her along. “I’m not going to help you if you can’t act like a sane human being.”

“Kana-chan, I am a sane human being! I just want dango, and I like holding your hand! We should hold hands all of the time!”

He was surprisingly cheery and it was to a disturbing level. She frowned at the back of his head, allowing him to manhandle her as they traversed the empty streets. The village was too small, too off the road. They were outsiders, and while some people were put off by their mere presence, others were too interested in them. In retaliation for his behavior, Kana stepped on his heel and he squeezed her hand hard enough to make her hiss in pain. She countered by squeezing his hand as hard as she could, so they fought in silence, both of them unwilling to surrender. He dragged her a little too hard and she stumbled, nearly crashing into his back. He gasped at her.

“Kana-chan wants a hug from Tobi?” His show gathered too much attention, and she’d thought he meant to blend in. She shoved him away when he tried to pull her into a hug and he pouted at her, his posture drooping. She wished her rejection actually hurt him. “Hm. What kind of dango are you going to get, Kana-chan?” Tobi used his free hand to tap where his chin should have been. She didn’t want dango. She wanted to strangle the life out of him and set fire to his remains for good measure. Instead, she grunted. “That’s not a kind of dango.”

“Can I gouge your eye out with the bamboo skewer? It’s the only reason why I would get dango.”

“Don’t you think that’s mean, Kana-chan? We’re going to be spending a lot of time together. We should be getting to know each other!”

“Fuck off.”

She was being difficult on purpose and they both knew it. He’d adopted his goofball persona and she’d resorted to cuss words and idle threats. He handled her mood well, but she knew her difficult behavior annoyed him. She did believe in Tsuki no Me, but she hated the fact that he took away her free will. She wondered if she would have left Konoha for him, if she would have willingly left Kakashi. Right then, she didn’t think so; right then, she knew she would have stayed. At the dango stand, Tobi ordered three skewers of hanami dango and turned to her, waiting for her to order something. They hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and her stomach grumbled at the thought of a sweet treat. Reluctantly, she ordered two skewers of matcha dango. She could have taken hanami, but she didn’t want to think of spring. Thinking of spring reminded her of her mother’s tulips. Whenever she remembered that night, her chest ached, her hands sweated, and her lungs burned. Her father’s apology looped in her mind, his voice on repeat, and then she remembered the image burned into her mind, the image of him taking his own life. Tobi nudged her side and she realized that the stall owner was offering her the matcha dango. She mumbled her thanks, then she followed Tobi to a bench near the stall and sat down beside him.

“Mm! It’s so good! I love spring!”

“I prefer fall. It doesn’t make much of a difference in Konoha, but some of the smaller nations and northern prefectures have weather that causes the leaves to change. It’s nice.”

“Everything dies.”

“It’s a cycle, so it’s never bothered me. If you get to visit a colder climate, it’s nice to have hot tea or hot chocolate and watch the snow fall.”

She didn’t know why she chose to converse with him. He had the opportunity to fill the following silence with more excited chatter about topics that didn’t matter to her, but he hummed, lifted his mask, and slipped the skewer of dango up to his mask to take a bite. She already knew what he looked like, so she didn’t bother spying on him. Her dango had a nice sweetness to it that fit well with the bitterness of the matcha. When she thought they had finally started tolerating one another, he placed his hand on top of hers and she pulled away from him as if she’d been burnt. His mission to aggravate her had already been a success, but he was an overachiever. He draped his arm over the back of the bench and then leaned in so they were squished together, so she jabbed him in the side with her bamboo skewer and he jerked away from the pointed end. He knew his advances only increased the likelihood of a verbal or physical spar, but he didn’t care. She dumped her skewer into the trash and cracked her neck, a sign that she’d had enough of his added stress. After he’d disposed of his empty skewer, he stretched his arms above his head and sighed, fully content with the sweet treat in his stomach.

“Do you feel like camping out? It’s going to be a nice night. It’ll be just us, lying under the starry night sky!”

“Lying far away from each other.”

“That’s boring, Kana-chan. You’re supposed to cuddle.”

“You’re doing this just to piss me off, because you know I want absolutely nothing to do with you right now. I vote we find an inn. I’m tired of you getting us fucking lost. You’re wasting time.”

“Maybe we can get a room with one bed!”

Kana gritted her teeth and turned on her heel, but he caught her left elbow before she could march away. She glared at his stupid orange mask and he pointed to something over her left shoulder. When she turned, she saw a sign hanging above a door labeling it as an inn. He looked too happy with himself, and all without allowing her a glimpse of his face. He took her hand in his and started dragging her toward the building, leaving her to flail and stumble as she tried to get her balance. Again, she stepped on his heel, and he squeezed her hand so tight that she wondered if he meant to break her bones. He hesitated at the entrance, his free hand raised to knock, then she shoved him forward and he fell into the inn, dragging her along with him. She landed on top of him and he grunted as her knees hit his thighs. She took joy in the way he shoved her aside, the only action that reminded her there was someone underneath the irritating persona. The owner of the inn was clearly absent, as a young girl stood behind the counter. Tobi helped Kana to her feet, then he left her hovering near the entrance.

“We’d like a room. One bed, please! We like to cuddle.”

“Two beds. We need two beds, because I’m about to murder this fucker.”

“Kana-chan is saying dirty words again,” Tobi said in a sing-song voice. Kana glared daggers at the back of his head. He complimented the young girl on the ribbons she wore in her hair and her face turned red. She stammered over the questions she needed answered. Tobi lied about their names and relationship and paid in cash for the full night. “Oh! Please don’t disturb us. Kana-chan gets grumpy when people disturb her sleep. It’s a woman thing, I think!” Kana grabbed him by his cloak and started dragging him toward the stairs, leaving him to flail dramatically. At the bottom of the stairs, she gave his back a hard shove and he started to climb them. She glanced over her shoulder at the counter, but the girl went back to reading her book. “Did you have to manhandle me?”

“Now you know how it feels,” Kana replied, shooting him a fake smile. She heard him snort as he unlocked the door. They both went to enter and they couldn’t fit through the doorway at the same time, so he motioned for Kana to go first. She stopped inside the doorway and stared at the lone bed. Tobi peered over her shoulder and happily exclaimed that there was one bed, so she turned and went to confront the front desk girl. Tobi trailed after her. “Excuse me. There seems to be a problem with my room. I requested two beds, and I saw one.”

“We don’t have any more doubles available. Hanami is celebrated tomorrow and the inns are fully booked. You should see the festival! It’s pretty great!”

“Fine. A futon then?”

“We don’t have any left.”

“Of course you don’t.”

“Thank you for your help! Let’s go to bed now, Kana-chan!” Tobi took her hand again and led her away. Kana glared over her shoulder at the girl and the girl raised her book to hide her face. Once they were on the stairs, Kana squeezed his hand until he hissed, then he accidentally yanked on her hand so hard that she swore her shoulder popped. “This would be a lot easier if you just cooperated. Tobi has been so good to you,” he sighed, happily leading the way to their room. When she saw the bed again, she huffed at it, as if it cared about her reaction. She thought he might keep up his persona for the duration of the stay, but he sat down on the edge of the bed and removed his mask. She closed the door a little too hard and he narrowed his eyes at her. For the first time, she noticed the second sharingan. “You tried to break my hand,” he frowned, eyeing her.

“Like you didn’t try to break mine. Do you have to act like such an idiot around me? I know who you are. You’ve kept up this charade for days and I’m really close to stabbing you in your sleep,” Kana admitted, sitting down on the bottom of the bed. She pulled the ponytail holder from her hair and used her fingers to work through the knots. Camping out hadn’t been fun. Her idea to look at their time together as a mission didn’t translate to camping. “You’re sleeping on the floor, by the way. I’m not sharing this bed with you.” She nodded to a spot on the floor and he laughed at her. From his reaction, she knew that they were going to argue over it. “I had to put up with your demented Tobi persona for almost two weeks. I deserve this bed. You deserve to sleep outside. And it looks like it’s going to rain. You deserve that too.” He set his mask down on the bedside table and turned on the small lamp to add light to the room.

“I’m not sleeping on the floor, and I’m not sleeping outside. If it bothers you so much, you’re free to sleep on the floor or outside. I’ll even give you one of the pillows.” He reached to his left, grabbed a pillow, and shoved it in her face. She snatched the pillow and smacked him in the face with it, so he grabbed the second pillow and hit her back. They exchanged blows until one of the pillows ripped and sent feathers everywhere. “That pillow is yours.” She growled at him and went to retrieve a new pillow. When she returned, she heard the shower running, showing that he’d likely use all of the hot water for himself. To be petty, she crept into the bathroom and flushed the toilet. His pained shout made her smile. She heard the sound of the shower curtain moving and ducked out of the bathroom. Seconds later, a towel around his waist, he stuck his head into the room and glared at her.

“What happened to you?” She eyed the white skin on his body, a clear separation from his normal skin tone. He had a patch around his lower right arm and near his upper right arm. The white spread over toward his chest, as if it had meant to overtake his whole body. He slammed the door on her and she rolled her eyes at his dramatics. Maybe drawing attention to his physical appearance hadn’t been her smartest move, but she’d blurted it out before she ever had the chance to stop herself. Wrinkling her nose, she got to her feet and approached the bathroom door. She knocked on it a few times, but he didn’t respond, not that she expected him to. “I didn’t mean it as an insult. I just,” she trailed off, hating herself for trying to apologize when she still wanted to stab him, “I guess it caught me off guard. It’s not like you’re hideous. On the outside, at least. On the inside, you’re absolutely revolting. Can you stop using up all the hot water now? I’d like a hot shower too after putting up with your stupid ass,” she said, mumbling the last part to herself. She heard the shower kick off and went back to her place on the bed.

“You aren’t that great either,” she heard him say from inside the bathroom. She found the words insulting, but she knew she was an acquired taste. And her mind supplied that Kakashi had cared for her anyway. Her hands gripped the edge of the bed, the top blanket wrinkling in her grasp. When the door opened, he was wearing clean clothes, all black and shinobi grade. He planned on sleeping in his traveling clothes. “Maybe I should invade your privacy and flush the toilet on you,” he said, entirely unimpressed with her. He approached the bed, so she took off her cloak with a flourish and smacked him in the face with it. He snatched it from her and threw it across the room, where it landed in a crumpled heap. “Don’t take forever.”

“You mean you don’t want to watch my every move?”

“I told you. You aren’t that great. Take a shower. You smell.”

“Oh fuck you.”

She flipped him off and locked herself in the bathroom. Instead of turning the shower on, she closed the lid on the toilet, sat down, and covered her face with her hands. The bathroom suddenly seemed too small, or maybe it was the perfect size for a safe space. Sighing into her hands, she tried to erase the images burnt into her mind. Sometimes she longed to be able to modify her own memories, to clear the clutter and set herself straight again. Throughout her career as a Konoha kunoichi, compartmentalizing had served her well. She shut down when she needed to shut down and adapted on the fly. She felt backwards, like she didn’t know how to recover from everything she’d experienced. She kept moving forward because there was no way to actually go backwards. She didn’t remember much of the journey from Rain. Her time with Obito blurred together. Just the slow roll of her anger kept her coherent. The look on her father’s face. The look on Kakashi’s face. The way they slid in the blood of her parents. Kana focused on taking deep breaths, because it began to feel like her lungs refused to work properly, and everything about her situation and her environment felt constricting. She ripped her hitai-ate off and threw it at the door. The metal plate put a nice dent in the door. The scratched leaf and spiral mocked her.

“I don’t hear the shower running.”

She frowned at his words and got up to turn the shower on. She left it on cold to fill the bathroom with noise. Her reflection in the bathroom mirror spoke of her exhaustion. She hadn’t slept well. Obito had to have noticed her tossing and turning as she struggled to find sleep. Her time in the war had haunted her for years, until another new trauma replaced it, and the cycle started all over again. She touched below her eyes, where dark spots hinted at her struggle. Her hair was tangled and dirty, and she knew how to remedy the problem. She’d packed supplies—she had everything she needed. She didn’t move though. That was the problem. She’d left herself in Konoha.

“Did you die in there?”

“Leave me alone for five goddamn minutes!”

Angry, she removed her kunai pouch from her thigh, then set her scrolls on the edge of the sink. Her wakizashi was leaning against the closed bathroom door, partially obscuring her hitai-ate. She turned up the hot water and dialed back the cold, then she stepped into the shower and closed the curtain in one motion. If he said anything else to her, she didn’t hear it. She scrubbed at her dirty hair and used her fingers to comb through the mess, then she worked on cleaning herself. The soap smelled like honey and milk, with an emphasis on honey. A hot shower always helped her nerves, the perfect remedy for a long day. When he knocked on the bathroom door, she whipped her head to the side to glare at the shower curtain, imagining the door beyond her space.

“I’m still alive, but you won’t be if you don’t let me shower in peace!”

“I have to piss.”

“Then maybe you should have thought of that while you were still in the bathroom.”

He started knocking on the door again and she shut the shower off. Grabbing for a towel, she wrapped it around herself, stepped out of the tub, slipped on the tile, and righted herself. His incessant knocking had her throwing the door open. She glared at him and he blinked a few times, his eyes going from her red eyes to her chest and back again. She grabbed all of the belongings she could carry and pushed past him, very aware of the feel of his body as she slipped by him. He slammed the door behind her and she flipped him off again, even though he couldn’t see it. Rooting through her storage scrolls, she found the one with her spare clothing and retrieved a tank top and shorts. She frowned at the short length of the bottoms and switched them out for sweats. He was in the bathroom while she dressed her lower half. Just as she’d dropped her towel to slip on her shirt, the bathroom door opened and they both froze. She covered her chest with her shirt and turned away, hiding herself from him, while he quickly turned around. She risked a glance over her shoulder and saw him rubbing the back of his neck. When he showed no signs of turning around, she slipped her top on and crossed her arms over her chest.

“I didn’t see anything.”

“I appreciate you lying to cover your own ass, but we both know you did.”

“How was I supposed to know you’d be changing out here? You couldn’t wait for me to get done in the bathroom?”

“I thought I could be quick about it!”

“There wasn’t much there,” Obito said, the words so quiet that the man clearly hoped she hadn’t heard them. She looked down at herself and frowned, knowing that he was right. Kakashi had never cared. No other man had ever cared. She picked up one of her sandals and threw it at his head, but he jerked his head to the side to avoid it. “Let’s just go to sleep.” He recovered her sandal and tossed it toward her other shoe, then he turned the bedside lamp off. There was a streetlight outside of the window that hit the end of the bed.

“I hate you,” she muttered, her arms still crossed over her chest. Kana knew he’d likely rolled his eyes at her. She pushed the covers back on her side of the bed and slipped underneath them, then she pulled them up to her chin and threw a glare over her shoulder. “Stay on your side of the bed. If one part of you is over the invisible line down the center of this bed, I’m cutting it off, and I mean it. I will find a way.” He snorted at her and turned his back to her, tugging on the blankets so that she had to tug them back. The war between them continued until he’d elbowed her in the spine. She fell asleep to his soft snores.

Hours later, she heard someone talking in the room. She reached for a weapon she didn’t have, prepared to fight an intruder who wasn’t there. Obito talked in his sleep. Closing her eyes, she sighed through her nose and tried to fall back asleep, but she heard a woman’s name repeated over and over again, his voice sounding so broken. She tried to ignore him, but his hoarse whisper of the woman’s name made her feel sorry for him. She hated that. He didn’t deserve understanding and compassion. As he lay on his back, she eased the covers back and got out of bed. He was blissfully unaware, too wrapped up in his dream, so she retrieved a kunai from her pouch and slipped back into bed. His brows furrowed, lips in a terrible frown, he fought something she couldn’t see. Swinging one leg over him, she straddled his legs and let the kunai hover over his throat. Killing him seemed too easy. She had him right where she wanted him. One quick slice and he’d never wake up again.

Tobi came to mind. She hated that persona with a passion, but there was a part of him in there that she wanted to believe was genuine. She didn't need to know the details to know that he'd had a tough life. The man underneath her had threatened the man she loved, using her feelings to bait her into joining Akatsuki. She'd killed plenty of people, some good and some bad, but she hesitated. Her hands shook, the kunai quivering in her grasp. Obito was blissfully unaware, crying out for a woman long gone from his life. She wanted to believe in a new world, a better world, but she was selfish. She wanted the solution without any of the problems. He expected her to let Kakashi go. Hadn't she already done that? No, slim threads still tied them together, even as enemies.

She moved back to her side of the bed and looked down at the kunai in her hands. A missed opportunity. A mistake. Her eyes strayed from the kunai to his face. He was restless then, moving in his sleep, so she touched his arm, fully expecting him to retaliate. When he didn't, she frowned. He was a complete moron to think he could sleep so well around her. Then again, she was a complete moron for not murdering him.

"It's just a dream, Obito. It's okay." How many nights had she experienced where she'd longed for someone to tell her the same thing? He grabbed her hand, his grip bruising, then he slowly began to relax, working through the worst of his dreams. "I'm a fucking idiot."

Chapter Text

She felt warm, the weight of his arm over her waist grounding her. Her eyes still closed, she pulled his arm tighter around herself, relaxing into his embrace. She chased his scent on her sheets, something like sandalwood that soothed her. Instead, she smelled milk and honey, odd, but not unpleasant. Kana tangled and untangled their fingers, just enjoying the feel of his hand in hers. She couldn't remember the last time she'd slept so well, and she woke up next to him, and something felt right. He pulled her to his chest and she felt how hard he was against her ass. They'd enjoyed morning sex, slow, lazy kisses between closed mouths. He made her feel alive again. Though he would never replace Kaisei, he held his own place in her heart.

She placed soft kisses on his fingers and he moved against her. A shaky moan slipped past her parted lips, then he stiffened against her, his hand suddenly pulled from her grasp. Still groggy, she opened her eyes and peered over her shoulder, expecting his wild hair and his morning smiles, but the spell broke. She and Obito stared at one another, both of them imagining other people. He looked away first, while her eyes lowered to his lap. She thought he might be embarrassed or ashamed, but he looked half asleep still. He didn't move to cover himself, and she didn't turn away. He was sad. She knew that just by his body language, the way his eyes settled on a spot and stayed there. His chakra signature, in all its unusual glory, provided comfort when she had nothing else. She missed the static feel of Kakashi's chakra signature, how she could easily pinpoint him, even from where she sat.

She'd chased sex because she enjoyed it, because it gave her a high that carried her through a lot of dark times. Sex was simple. There was nothing complex with a lack of attachments. She wanted feelings, because feelings reminded her that she wasn't alone, even when she felt lonely. She touched him because he was close to her and because he seemed to crave the same thing. He caught her hand before she could move it further than his thigh. She thought he might squeeze her hand, maybe even break her bones. Finally, he looked at her. His eyes were dark, the threat of his sharingan absent.

"Don't."

"Let me touch you."

"Kana."

His hold was loose, so when she pulled her hand away, he clenched his jaw and watched her hand as she closed it around his erection. His breath hitched, but he didn't bat her hand away. She hesitated when he didn't show her that he was enjoying it, but when she tried letting go of him, he tightened her hold on him and helped her with a few strokes. He tangled his fingers in her long hair and drew her in for a bruising kiss that sent a pleasant chill down her spine. He was different, the kiss speaking of his own lack of experience, so she wondered if he'd ever sought out someone to warm his bed or if he'd let thoughts of the future weigh him down. She stopped stroking him so that she could remove her top. She thought he would make another cruel comment about her breasts, so she avoided looking at him.

Instead, he felt them with his hands, moving his palms over her nipples until they were hard against his hands. He pulled his shirt off next, tossing it onto the floor without much thought, while she lifted her hips to slide down her sweats and panties. She thought he might let her take control, so when he hesitated, she kissed him again.

"Take your pants off," she spoke between kisses.

She hated when he pulled away. So many emotions could have gone into sex, each one bringing out differences in them. Sadness had driven her, but desperation carried her through. She needed his hands on her body, anywhere she could get them. Her desires encouraged Obito to want the same thing. He didn't try to dominate her, and she didn't pretend there was any kind of disagreement with how she proceeded to shove him onto his back. He grunted as his head hit the soft pillow. She stroked him a few more times, wanting to see the way his eyes closed. He trusted her again, and that seemed like a mistake.

As she guided him into her, she was slow with her approach. He was larger than she'd expected and she wasn't used to it. His hands settled on her hips, fingers digging into her skin. And she could pretend he was someone else. When she moved, his hands went to her thighs, and he thrust up to meet her. He wasn't rough with her, but he was impatient, quick to chase his own release. He moaned another woman's name and that ruined the moment for her. Anything she'd hoped to gain from the experience was lost. He changed their positions so he could take control and she closed her eyes and pretended he didn't say Rin's name on repeat. He came with a low moan and rode out his orgasm, his face buried against her neck. His breaths were hot on her skin. He was still panting, his eyes closed, one hand at her hip and the other supporting him by her head.

"Did you?" He didn't get to finish because she shoved his chest until he withdrew and moved aside. She drew her knees up to her chest and he ran a hand through his disheveled hair. "I can go again," he offered, the sweetest thing he'd said to her. She looked at him, really looked at him, and saw him as someone incomplete.

"Alright," she relented, thinking the second time would be better. He hesitated, and there was an awkward moment where she thought he would change his mind. “You’re really bad at this.” He scowled at her, but she inched her hands up his bare thighs. He kept the unhappy expression even when she stroked him, trying to get him hard enough to go again. He didn’t try touching her, so she stopped stroking him to lead one of his hands between her legs. “You don’t do this very often, do you?”

“I have better things to do.”

“Like taking over the world.”

“Saving the world.”

“Same fucking thing.”

His fingers circled her clit and she moved her hips, pressing herself against his hand. She could pretend that she hadn’t heard a chorus of Rin. The pressure from his touch distracted her; he tried touching her and rubbing her in different ways, learning what she liked based on the way she struggled to focus on him. She moaned his name and it felt odd on her tongue, leaving her lips tingling. His thumb remained on her clit as he slipped a finger inside of her. When he was hard again, she placed her hand over his and he drew his hand away, both of them focused on more than exploratory touches. She didn’t care for missionary, but she gave in when he leaned her back. Her hand went to the nape of his neck and she drew him in for a series of kisses. He kissed between her breasts and down her midsection, stopping at her belly button. He was impatient and selfish and she understood those things well. The second time, he said her name as he eased into her, a low moan communicating exactly how he felt. He hit a spot that had her fingers and toes curling, so she reached between them and tried touching herself, but he slapped her hand away and mimicked the way he’d circled her clit. He found the angle that made her gasp and he didn’t stop until she succumbed to a melody of his name on her lips. She inhaled sharply when her orgasm hit her, but he didn’t stop touching her.

“Don’t stop.”

She begged him, even though he hadn’t shown signs of stopping. He frowned when she raked her nails over his back, her fingers shaking as she tried to find something to hold onto. Her legs shook and he leaned in to kiss her, but another sharp gasp emerged from her parted lips. He moaned her name as he thrust harder, idly mumbling about how good and tight she felt. He praised her as she moved with him. He pulled back completely and she looked at him with her sharingan, her momentary confusion lost as he increased his pace. He came with a groan that turned into heavy breathing that matched her own. She hissed as he pulled back, but a pleasant numbness overtook her, as it always did, and she let her eyes close. They didn’t try talking. She understood the silence that followed. Maybe it was a mistake, but she’d made so many throughout her life. What was one more?

She didn’t expect him to lie down beside her, but he did. He didn’t try to touch her again, so she kept her eyes closed and focused on his chakra signature, the feel of it warming her from the inside. In a way, he’d taken everything from her. Her father. Her mother. Her brother. Her lover. And she still chose to seek comfort with him. He took pieces of her every time he touched her. There wasn’t much of her left. She turned her head to see his profile and found him staring at the white ceiling, clearly lost in his own thoughts. They couldn’t stay there forever, but she enjoyed the silence and stillness in the room.

“It shouldn’t have happened.”

“And I thought listening to you moan another girl’s name was bad.”

“We both know you were thinking of that trash.”

The word choice took her back to her last meal with her family. Her mother had called Kakashi trash too. She hummed and looked away from him. If she tried, she knew she could pinpoint Kakashi’s chakra signature. Each one was unique. He sat up and put his back to her so he could retrieve his clothes from the floor. She lifted her head enough to see where she’d dropped her clothes, but she made no move to collect them. Idly, she realized that he hadn’t pulled out. The sheets were spotted where he came inside of her, and she felt gross. He didn’t look ready to dress himself, so she swung her legs over the side of the bed and went to the bathroom for a shower. He watched her as she walked past, his eyes burning holes into her. In the shower, she watched the water circle the drain, her head dipped so the shower ran over her head and cascaded down her spine. She took too long in the bathroom. She heard the door open, but he didn’t disturb the shower curtain, so she continued rinsing the soap from her body.

“I want to leave in thirty minutes.”

“I’m hungry.”

“Maybe we would have had time for breakfast if you didn’t fuck around.”

“There’s the piece of shit I’m used to.”

He flushed the toilet.

Chapter Text

Tobi reappeared, and the annoying persona pursued her at every chance. His ridiculous voice was grating, even at the best of times. More than once, they’d resorted to fighting one another, always a one-sided attempt to silence him for good. He never hurt her though. When he hit her, he poked and prodded, sometimes correcting her movements, and she hated him more for it. As Tobi, he showed her kindness—the difference between Tobi and Obito left her reeling. She treated him to long silences, where he filled the world with words she tried to ignore. He continued the charade into the evening, sometimes maintaining the act for days at a time, but in the solitude of inns, safe in their room, he removed his mask and the endless stream of words vanished, leaving them cloaked in suffocating silence.

As Obito, he ignored her existence. Just as she’d thought, her decision to sleep with him was a mistake, and he reminded her of that whenever she caught him looking at her. The fruitless endeavor wore away at patience pulled thin by years filled with a lack of accomplishments. He expected her to make miracles. She’d never encountered Kakuzu. She couldn’t identify and track the signature of someone she’d never met. Knowing he thought of her as a failure made the trip even more difficult. The misplaced blame and anger ate away at her. He really did remind her of embers.

“This is the sixth false lead,” Obito growled, throwing the map across the room. She watched the crumpled map fall to the floor. Sitting on her chosen side of the bed, she’d listened to him complain and huff and growl for twenty minutes straight, and she couldn’t help but admit it was a nice change from the heavy silence carried on between them. “I need strong shinobi or the plan won’t succeed. I need him.” Kana watched him tug at his hair, then she pursed her lips, considering their meager options. There were other leads, but Obito’s mood had been spiraling. He snapped at her more, and she snapped right back. “You’re useless.”

“I can’t pinpoint his signature when I’ve never met him! Do you have any idea how many people are on this fucking planet? Shinobi have chakra. Civilians have chakra. Nature has chakra. It’s everywhere!”

“You're only good on your back. Is that it?"

His eyes were hard, lips drawn into a frown only accented by the shadows in the room. She got to her feet and left their room, slamming the door behind her. Of course he'd referenced the event they didn't talk about. She threw a glare over her shoulder and bypassed a nervous woman in the second-floor hallway. He let her go. For the first time since Konoha, she tasted freedom, and she savored it. His words weighed on her, every step like an echo of his last words to her. Useless. Worthless. She chose a bar at the edge of town, even though she didn't have any ryo to her name. She stood out among the bar's inhabitants because she was the only female there, and she understood why. They leered at her, and she dared them to confront her, because she had nothing left but anger.

She took a seat at the bar and made a meal out of salted peanuts. The peanuts were old and had too much salt, but she had a nasty habit of getting into an argument before dinner, leaving her to fend for herself. At the thought of Obito, she bit down on another peanut, grinding it into dust. She'd expected him to follow her. Being without him was a new development. The bartender eyed her, obviously wondering why she hadn't bought a drink to pair with the peanuts. He would eventually kick her out, so she took another handful of peanuts.

When she first felt the chakra signature creeping along the edges of the room, she felt sick. There was something almost inhuman about it. It wasn't strength that registered, but something all-encompassing. The chakra was like a sickness, infecting its surroundings. She wondered how anyone could miss the person, but then it clicked that the chakra signature moved around beneath their feet. What she felt was a predator stalking its prey. In the crowded setting, she felt safer, so she was thankful when someone bought her a drink, even if she hated beer. She let the cold bottle sit there, eyes focused on the sweat sliding down the glass. Her senses focused on that dark signature until it bled away.

She was left with a hulking figure to her right and an empty dish, where she'd eaten all of her peanuts. The man reminded her of Obito. She reached out, testing her luck with her chakra. He had varying signatures, but unlike Pein, his signatures were entirely different and all contained within his person. His chakra natures varied, as if he'd mastered them. She reached around him to grab the peanuts he hadn't touched and he turned to look at her. She took note of his hitai-ate and she dropped the dish of peanuts into her lap. She'd never noticed how everyone avoided him.

"So you recognize me now."

"I do. You're a hunter nin's wet dream."

"I'm only wanted in six nations. You're from Konoha. Your bounty isn't high enough for me."

"Lucky for me, isn't it? It must be difficult to travel when you attract attention everywhere you go."

"I manage," he replied, motioning for the bartender to refill his tumbler. Kana stared at her beer, willing it to turn into anything else. More sweat rolled down the side and collected on the bar, creating a perfect circle. "You're incredibly brave or incredibly stupid." He took a drink from his glass and she hummed.

"I prefer the words impulsive or reckless," she shrugged, toying with her beer bottle. She finally brushed the peanuts from her lap, frowning as she heard the snacks hit the floor. Her stomach growled for food she didn't have. Kakuzu reached down the bar, grabbed a container of peanuts, and set it down in front of her. "Careful. You might make a girl fall in love with you," she teased, too happy to taste another old peanut. If her words amused him, he didn't show it.

"A good sensor is hard to find," he commented, sparing her a glance. Where she'd hated gaining Obito’s attention, she didn't hate harboring his attention. His interest in her made her consider leaving with him, because surely someone like him would be able to offer protection, even with the added attention. She only needed him to kill Obito.

"And incredibly valuable as an ally."

"I'm listening."

"I'm in an arrangement I'd rather not be. Kill the man I'm with and I'll help you. I'm not interested in a cut beyond money for essentials."

"Money is something I understand. I also recognize a member of Akatsuki when I see one. How did you get mixed up with a rising terrorist organization?"

"It's the fucking story of my life," she frowned, finally caving and taking a quick swig of her beer. She shuddered at the taste and slid the bottle away from her to chase the taste with peanuts. "You're not actually interested, are you? They'll use you and discard you, just like a hidden village. The protection they offer isn't worth it."

Her words didn't phase him. He showed an interest that she currently lacked. She felt as if her presence had been the catalyst. When Obito did show up, there was no grand battle, no pointless death, just a verbal agreement built around profits and the security of power in numbers. Kakuzu didn't betray her by voicing the words they'd exchanged, and she had a feeling she owed him something for his silence. Nothing was ever free with someone like him. Kakuzu agreed to meet them at ten in the morning, citing that he had a prior engagement, leaving Kana to follow Obito back to their inn.

Obito didn't apologize to her for his cruelty, but she hadn't expected an apology from him. He went back to ignoring her, so she took a shower and went to bed early, leaving him to pass along a message that Kakuzu had been recruited. Hours later, she felt him behind her, his nose against her neck, so close that she wondered if he meant to become one person. He was asleep, blissfully unaware of his own violation of their silent agreement. She shoved him, but he only wrapped an arm around her, holding her in place. She glared at the window across the room, the curtains slightly swaying with the evening breeze entering through the small opening. Embers invaded her senses, so she focused on the distance between herself and Konoha, trying her best to locate Kakashi’s signature. He wasn’t there, meaning he was on a mission. She thought about searching for him, knowing it would take all of her concentration, but Obito muttered against her skin and her concentration slipped. She lost touch with Konoha, her range slowly returning to zero. The rest of her night was filled with restless sleep, his hold and his chakra suffocating.

She woke up alone. It was a habit for her to touch the spot next to her, so when she caught herself, she let her hand rest on the empty spot, her eyes on the perfectly made bed. She wasn’t in Konoha, hadn’t been for a while, but she hadn’t grown accustomed to waking up in new places every day. The bathroom door opened and Obito went to collect his mask from the bedside table, his unspoken reminder of the time getting Kana moving. If he woke up holding her, he didn’t act like it. He let her shower in peace, and she changed in the bathroom, not wanting to be around him. When they met with Kakuzu, the man made the journey to Rain bearable. Tobi appeared and Kakuzu didn’t seem phased by the annoying persona. Knowing that it was an act seemed to keep the man’s infamous temper in check. Halfway through their journey, she felt that unnatural chakra signature again, the person trailing after them, and always beneath their feet. At one point, she caught Kakuzu looking at the ground, his eyes narrowed. Tobi remained cheerfully oblivious. She had a feeling Obito knew.

Chapter Text

The partner Konan and Itachi had retrieved for Kakuzu was an annoying man from Kusagakure. He was loud and arrogant, and Kana knew from their first meeting that he wouldn’t survive very long. No one had hope for the little man. Kana thought that Obito would remain as her partner, so she wasn’t surprised when Pein insisted they remain together, despite the fact that she voiced her displeasure and asked to be paired with Itachi. The teen had always been quiet, but he seemed completely detached, as if he’d died with his best friend and had been a walking corpse since Konoha.

Pein dismissed her and motioned for Itachi to follow, so they waited in the hallway and listened to the heated disagreement taking place inside the room. The trio didn’t bother with privacy seals, but she pretended she couldn’t hear their insults and complaints. Their recruitment phase was on hold, while Konan and Itachi would locate his partner in Kirigakure. Just the name of the village reminded Kana of Kakashi and her chest ached. She didn’t know when she’d started brushing her hair behind her ears or toying with her gloves, tightening them until they made noise. When the door opened, Konan emerged and started down the hallway to the elevator. Itachi didn’t hesitate to follow her. Obito brushed past Kana and she didn’t move, her eyes meeting Pein’s through the open door.

“Let’s go.” Obito’s words were a command and she hated that she twitched at the veiled anger in them. He disagreed with Pein, but he couldn’t really argue with the man, since he needed the members of the organization to reach his goal. He needed Kana, and he knew she would take her chances fighting anyone he paired her with. His sharingan was stronger than hers, where it mattered. “We’re taking a mission.” She didn’t get a day’s rest and they were back on the road again. She swallowed her distaste and settled for glaring at the back of his head.

She didn’t understand why he led her to a clothing store until she saw him picking out warmer clothing. He gravitated to the men’s section, but he slowly found his way into the women’s section, where he tried to find her appropriate clothing. Seeing him trying to keep her from dying of hypothermia made her wonder if he really did care about her, but that thought was overshadowed when he kept choosing the wrong sizes on purpose.

She chose a black, long-sleeved shirt; a mesh, crop-top undershirt; and a pair of black, wool-blend leggings. Their clothes and shoes were sealed away until they grew closer to the cold climate of their destination. He didn’t talk to her until they were outside of the village, and then it was to tell her she smelled like hibiscus, an observation rather than a compliment. Kakashi had always liked her scent. When Obito adopted his Tobi persona again, she slapped the back of his head and he stepped in a large puddle. Even though he whined her name, she saw his narrowed sharingan eye.

“Where are we going?" Tobi actually answered her questions, unlike Obito. She took advantage of that.

"Kana-chan really wants to know?" She gave him a flat look and he took a quick glance around, as if someone in the vicinity would hear them conversing. Kana knew there wasn't anyone around for miles. "We're going to the Land of Snow! You can have hot tea and cocoa!"

The fact that he remembered surprised her, but he didn't seem to think the words meant anything to her. She preferred fall, but winter wasn't terrible. He was right. But she rarely had the opportunity to relax while on the job. As much as she enjoyed the thought, she couldn't imagine relaxing while in his presence. He still didn't want to speak to her, and she didn't push him, since his words still echoed in her mind. He took her hand in his and she pulled away from him, choosing to cross her arms over her chest. He stared at her. She knew he would pretend to trip over his own feet, so she wasn't surprised when he did. As he recovered, she kept walking, leaving him to catch up to her.

In Snow, shinobi manipulated existing ice. She'd been there a handful of times, back when there was an agreement between Fire and Snow. At one time, the daimyo had invited the Hokage to a feast and Kana had been among the team assigned to accompany the Hokage. The daimyo, Kazahana Sosetsu was a kind man, but he was most known for the sharp decline in his country's revenue. The nation was nearly bankrupted by him, the village of Yukigakure included. She remembered the man's funny glasses and receding hairline. Nothing else. Beside her, Tobi whistled a children's song, one her mother used to hum while forcing her to learn needlework. She hated that song.

"You're so quiet!"

"You don't notice because you dominate what you consider conversations. For a change, you aren't rambling about garbage."

"Kana-chan, littering is a very serious topic. I care about the environment! We need to take care of the earth! There's only one."

"That we know of."

"Huh. You're right! There could be aliens!"

Kana tuned him out as he theorized about alien life. He didn't really care about the subject, and she didn't want to listen to his outlandish conspiracy theories about life on other planets. She felt three chakra signatures approaching and signed in Konoha standard. Tobi waved at her, but she knew he understood. They had the option to avoid any possible conflict, so when Tobi took off into the forest, chasing after a butterfly, she recognized that he meant to avoid them. Lightning kissed her senses and she nearly choked on a sharp inhale. Another sensor was present, judging by the chakra assessing her own. Tobi sighed as the butterfly rose into the sky, leaving them on a new route, further south. He meant to cross near the coast, as evidenced by their direction, and that seemed safer. The problem was that Kakashi was determined, stubborn at the best of times. She didn't know if they were returning from a mission or leaving for a mission, but she and Tobi were on a collision course. The team clearly meant to pursue them.

"They're getting too close," she warned him. He gave her a sharp nod, one she almost missed, then they took to the trees, hoping to outrun the ANBU team. There was nothing left of his clumsy, stupid persona, and she longed for his Tobi voice to lull her into a false sense of security. She didn’t want Kakashi to see her, not then, not like that. Tobi whistled for her attention and he questioned her in sign language about Team Ro. “We’re losing ground and we’re going to hit the coast soon. We’ll meet on the beach. This isn’t fucking working!”

She didn’t bother signing a response to him. A kunai sliced a path through the air, cutting off a couple strands of her hair. Tobi jumped from his branch to hers and she thought he might hurt her for giving away their position, but he wrapped his arms around her and held her close. She stared over his shoulder as the hound mask came into view. Kana locked eyes with Kakashi, her sharingan memorizing the emotion in his eyes. She’d longed for hurt, just to know that he still cared, maybe anger, to know that there was something between them. She saw nothing. And then they were gone. Kana blinked a few times, as if she meant to clear her vision, but their surroundings remained the same. The place where they stood was a large, flat slab of concrete that remained stationary, and there were other columns and sections, creating a weird world she’d never seen before, one very different from the world they’d left. He released her and started pacing, clearly angry about their situation. It was her fault, and she knew it, and she expected him to tell her that he knew it too. She hadn’t returned from their mission to collect Kakuzu—she was still in that bar, filling her empty stomach with salty peanuts. As he paced, she turned in a circle to observe the world. Obito had taken them there. And she knew that even with his mask, he was Obito then.

“Did you enjoy seeing Kakashi again?” He was surprisingly calm when he asked the question, but she knew he was still furious. Instead of answering, she chose to ignore him. He didn’t like being ignored. The silence gave him time to make assumptions, and he loved making assumptions. “Was it what you thought it would be? Did he miss you, Kana?” She clenched her jaw and looked away from him, even as he approached her. Kakashi had likely been the one to throw the kunai. He grabbed her chin and she narrowed her eyes at him, their sharingan clashing. “Did you think he would rescue you? Did you honestly think he’d give a damn about you?”

She placed both of her hands on his chest and shoved him away from her. He took two steps toward her again, so she swiped at him with a kunai that passed right through his chest. Their quick exchange turned into a taijutsu match that bled into the use of ninjutsu when Kana sent a fireball at him at point-blank range. He countered the fire release with his own fire release that sent them flying apart. Eventually, his fireball won and she took shelter behind an earth wall. He rounded her earth wall to strike her, but she’d anticipated him and fled to another column in the dimension. Their game of cat and mouse contained a lot of fire release techniques exchanged over a distance, the flames leaving horrible marks behind in the dimension before fizzling out in the dead air. When she drew her wakizashi, he fought her with the kunai she’d discarded, deflecting all of her blows. She lashed out with her wakizashi, he blocked, and she sliced his right arm at the joint. Her blow went through his clothing and she swore she felt flesh. She gasped at the fact that she’d hurt him and he punched her in the face, sending her flying across the concrete. Her head connected too hard and she landed at an awkward angle, but she was quick to look at him, to make sure that she’d wounded him. She watched him reattach his own arm as if it were nothing, then he raised his head to glare at her and she scrambled away from him. When she couldn’t get to her feet, she hurried across the ground, but his foot came down hard on her back and she landed on her stomach with a grunt.

“Get up.” He moved his foot from her back and she tried to get her limbs to cooperate, but she settled for groaning, which he answered with a sound kick to her side that rolled her onto her back. When he reeled back to kick her again, she pushed herself upright, but she fell back down again. She didn’t care if he kicked her again, so when he stooped down next to her, she didn’t flinch. He placed a hand atop her head and she hissed at the pain. His eyes went to the blood collecting at the back of her head, staining the concrete red. “I cracked your skull.” He hummed, then she felt something crawling along her scalp, the pain of it causing her to cuss at him. He didn’t pull away when she swung at him, but she missed anyway. “Maybe you’ll think before you attack me. Next time, your head will stay broken.” He dragged her to a seated position, then he healed the gash on the back of her head, leaving behind a scar and dried blood. “I can’t heal a concussion. You’re on your own. Get up.” He flicked her temple and she successfully swatted his right calf, but she lacked strength behind it.

“I cut your arm off.”

“You're not the first person. If you were smart, you would have gone for my head.”

He collected her wakizashi from the ground and presented the hilt to her, so she forced herself to her feet. When she swayed, he caught her elbow and sheathed the blade for her. She thought he might give her time to recover, but he wrapped one arm around her waist and they left the void for the border between Hot Water and Snow. As soon as they were on solid ground, Kana doubled over and dry heaved into the dead grass. Someone polite might have asked about her, maybe held her hair back for her, but Obito stood off to the side and let her suffer alone. After the nausea had passed, Obito grabbed her elbow and dragged her into a run that left her feeling as if every cell in her body was vibrating at once. They stopped not long after that, when he admitted that he couldn’t drag her around and expect her to function after cracking her head open. The village they chose was within the Land of Snow, but there wasn’t more than a couple of inches of white on the ground and rooftops. The farther they went, the more snow they would encounter. With her headache, Kana wanted nothing more than to retreat to their room and sleep, but he kept waking her up to check on her, as if he actually cared if she woke up again or not. By the fourth time, she dragged him down beside her and growled at him to go to sleep. It was three in the afternoon.

“What’s your name?”

“Stop waking me up with these questions!”

“Maybe if you answered them, I’d leave you alone.”

“Liar.”

Obito shoved a bento at her chest but the smell of the fried food made her stomach roll. Hours before, she'd scrubbed her mouth to rid herself of vomit and promised herself it wouldn't happen again. Seeing her expression, he pulled the food away from her and sat it on the kotatsu across the room. Her fingers explored the back of her head, feeling for fresh scar tissue; when she found it, she traced her index finger over the uneven line. She glared at Obito the whole time, but he didn't seem bothered. Throwing the blankets from herself, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood. He caught her as she tipped to one side, but she took him with her to the bed, where he landed on top of her and her head bounced. She groaned and he rolled his eyes, so she pinched his side, fingers digging through his clothing until she snagged his skin. He raised a hand like he meant to hit her, so she rolled him over. His hands went to her hips and hers went to his chest and she was reminded of the mistake they didn't acknowledge.

He pressed on her hips until it ached, so she pinched his left nipple and twisted. He pinched her ass, so she moved against him on purpose. He rolled her over and smashed his lips onto hers, the bruising kiss having too much teeth. She slipped her hand between their bodies to fondle him through his pants, while he moved to sucking and biting her neck, leaving perfect indentations of his teeth. There was no slow removal of clothing, just one another tearing at clothing, chasing skin on skin.

His mouth went to her breasts and she hissed when he was too rough, but he covered bites with his tongue, tasting cherry almond on her skin. She didn't try to fight him to ride him. He pinned her wrists above her head with one hand and used his other to push himself into her. She wasn't ready and he didn't wait for her, but she reveled in the pain. His thrusts were hard but deep, like he wanted to claim every inch of her. She wrapped her legs around him at one point so he bottomed out in her and she moaned his name to their empty room. She encouraged him.

He moaned her name in an echo and she threw her head back, warning him that she was close, so he rubbed her clit and threw her over the edge. She came with an exclamation of yes and his low chuckle paired with the fact that he didn't stop. She was too sensitive for a minute and he ignored her as she squirmed. When the moment passed, he groaned into her neck and the sound of his voice and his touch had her soaring. He came with her name on his lips and her nails hard against his back and her thighs pressed so tight against him. The silence that followed was punctuated by the throbbing in her head, but she swore she'd never felt better. He eased out of her with more care than he'd shown her throughout and her legs fell back to the bed. He lay next to her and ran his hands over his face, while she tried to make sense of how she'd gone from chopping his arm off to rough sex.

"Fuck," he sighed, his hands falling from his face. She wetted her lips, her mouth dry from moans slipping past her parted lips.

"We already did that," she supplied. He actually laughed at her response, and she wondered if it was one of the times he was a decent human being again. "You know me. I'm best on my back." She said it to the ceiling, her voice bitter, tinged with too much anger. She heard him sigh.

"I was angry, Kana."

"I believe I'm also useless."

"I hurt your feelings."

"Yeah, you did." She turned her back to him and prepared to get up, but his hand trailed along her spine. He didn't apologize to her, but she'd hoped he would. Hope was useless. That was true. "Is this going to keep happening? Are we going to argue and explode and fuck and talk it out over and over again?"

He continued stroking her back, fingers light against her skin. If he had an answer, he didn't share it. She sighed as she felt him moving, then his lips touched her shoulder. His touch kept her there, even though she wanted a shower, or at least to clean up. He moved her hair and kissed the side of her neck and she frowned at the thick curtains blocking the room's lone window. His arms circled around her and he touched her stomach and her breasts, making it evident he wanted to sleep with her again. She saw an apology in the gentle way he handled her. It was so unlike him that she didn't know whether she wanted to reject him or not. Though she didn’t push him away, he stopped touching her. She grabbed his hands before he could pull them away, and it was an awkward moment where he held her, even if he didn’t mean to. Closing her eyes, she exhaled through her nose and leaned against him. He didn’t know what to do, so he wrapped his arms around her.

“Do you want some hot tea?” She laughed at his question and his hands fanned out across her abdomen. He was genuinely trying to make it up to her, whether he acknowledged it or not. Hot tea sounded fantastic, but she bit down on her lower lip, teeth digging into her skin. “Hot cocoa?” She smiled, knowing he couldn’t see her expression. He didn’t need to eat or drink, but he provided for her. She hummed and he kissed her shoulder again. Without their anger between them, they got along well. Her lack of response had him pulling away, the silence another misunderstanding.

“Hot cocoa,” she decided, glancing over her shoulder. He nodded, and she watched him get to his feet and collect his clothing. She admired the way his muscles moved, the curve of his spine, and the separation between white flesh and his pale skin. He caught her staring at him and arched a brow, the silent question passing between them. Again, she wetted her lips. “Do you want to make sure I don’t die in the shower first?” She hoped she wouldn’t have to openly ask him to join her, so after he took a minute to grasp the hidden meaning, he lowered his clothes back to the floor. She didn’t need his help—she prided herself on her independence—but he wasn’t unbearable. Hot cocoa could wait.

Chapter Text

The mug of hot cocoa she held warmed her palms and fingers, and the scent of rich chocolate permeated the air. Obito sat across from her at the kotatsu, eating the tempura bento he’d bought for her, since he’d replaced the food with okayu and salmon. She had yet to touch the salmon, but the porridge tasted good, taking her back to times when her grandma took care of her. When she was sick, the woman went into nurse mode and stuffed her with porridge and hot tea. She remembered very little about the woman, just the smell of her strawberry lotion and the sound of her laughter. Kana had been too young to remember much else. Her paternal grandmother had been an amazing woman, and Kana had wanted to be just like her. But the war had happened and her thoughts of being a medic were put on hold. She was better with espionage and capable of front-line fighting. Becoming a medic would have been a waste. Or so her father had told her.

Her okayu had memories surfacing, and her stomach churned when she recalled her father slicing open his stomach. As if to counteract the memory, she finally took a bite of her salmon, forcing herself to eat. Obito was distracted, his eyes focused on the snow outside of the window. The curtains were drawn, allowing them to see flurries falling from the sky. The inn owner had warned them that there was a snowstorm due overnight, so their plans were on hold again. Their destination was Kazahana castle, located in the mountains of Snow. Obito finally admitted that they were hired to assassinate the daimyo and aid in the uprising. Kana had accepted the news well, because the mission was like any other mission. She didn’t care about what happened to the country. And maybe it was wrong of her, but she didn’t care about that either.

“How is it?”

“Good. How’s your hot cocoa?”

“The miniature marshmallows are a nice touch. I haven’t had hot cocoa since I was a kid,” he admitted, looking down at the mug next to his bento. He had a few pieces of shrimp tempura and a spoonful of rice left, but she didn’t think he’d finish it. The smell of the food still bothered her. “I used to drink it to help me sleep.” She didn’t know why he chose to talk about his childhood, but he seemed wistful. She felt that way too. Their lives had been simpler in childhood, even though they’d been tossed into war at a young age. He took his mug in one hand and looked down at the tiny marshmallows floating on the surface, the steam rising up to envelope his senses. “Rin liked hot cocoa.” She wondered if he even knew he’d said it. Rather than pry, she let the words sit between them. He talked about her at night, unaware of the fact.

“She was your teammate,” Kana stated, knowing better than to phrase it as a question. He frowned, and she thought he’d shut down, so she wasn’t surprised when he took a drink of hot cocoa that must have burnt his tongue. “Iwagakure killed mine, but they killed a lot of our shinobi,” she rationalized, having accepted the deaths of the two boys. Seeing them killed had really scarred her—she’d blamed herself for years. “What was she like?” He jerked his head up, eyes rising from the cup of hot cocoa to meet hers. He looked surprised that she’d asked. “You don’t have to answer, you know,” she added, shrugging.

“Rin was an amazing person. She believed in me when no one else did. Whenever I struggled, she was there for me. She never laughed at me; she never mocked me. She saw something in me when I saw nothing in myself.”

“Hm. You loved her.”

“It was a long time ago.”

“Kaisei was the first person to look at me and see something worthwhile,” she said, choosing to share part of her story to even the playing field. He listened to her, which was different. She’d kept a lot of her feelings inside, finding it easier to bury them than try to confront them. No one had really asked her about Kaisei. That part of her life was precious. “I’m not a good person. I’m difficult and moody at the best of times, and he accepted that. He told me he thought I was funny. No one had ever said that to me before. He died on a mission. His body was never recovered.” It was easier to state the facts. She didn’t go into detail because she didn’t want to reopen the wound. Thinking of Kaisei had her thinking of Kakashi and how the man had looked at her in that brief moment they'd shared. “Love is a weakness. That’s all it is.”

“You love Kakashi.”

“And look where it’s gotten me. He tried to kill me.”

“He has a tendency to do that.”

She laughed at the words and one corner of his lips tipped upwards for a partial smile. The expression pulled on his scars, but she still thought he was handsome. She was warm at the kotatsu and comfortable on her zabuton, so she found herself yawning. It was almost dusk, their afternoon spent showering and eating. Just as she'd thought, he didn't finish his rice or tempura. She finished off her food and got to her feet, but she had to wait for a dizzy spell to subside. The hot shower had helped her headache, but rising and sitting still gave her issues. She was reminded of the fact that it was Obito’s fault and threw a dirty look at him that he pretended to miss. The bed sheets were clean and smelled like flowers, reminding her of summer, rather than spring. He didn't join her, still content to sit at the kotatsu, so she turned onto her side and fell asleep. Hours later, she felt the bed dip and it took her too long to realize that it was only Obito. She thought he might hold her, but he didn't. Hours later, she felt his arm around her. And embers enveloped her, lulling her back to sleep.

Exploratory touches guided her from sleep. He toyed with her shirt, his hand sliding beneath it to touch her stomach. She thought ignoring him would get her more sleep, but she was against his chest and she felt how hard he was. The weird mood had bled into the following day, and she wondered if it were a spell cast over them. When they left the inn, she knew she would get Tobi again. With that thought, she placed his left hand over her bare breast and he moved against her. They couldn't stay there for another day, so she chose to savor the time she had with him. Who knew when he would be in such a good mood again. Inevitably, he would transform into a massive bastard again, and their unhealthy cycle would repeat.

They didn't fully undress before he eased into her from behind, his breathy moan matched with her own. He wasn't rough and they didn't rush, the sex slowly driving morning grogginess away. After they'd finished, they took turns taking showers and preparing for the cold weather outside. He offered her breakfast, so she had omelets and toast with raspberry jam. The moment she stepped outside, she wanted to turn around and crawl back into bed, but he nudged her to get her going.

The cold penetrated her layers and sent a chill down her spine, so she focused on circulating her chakra, pretending that her knack for fire release techniques was programmed into the chakra moving through her system. Obito didn't seem bothered by the cold. The moment Tobi appeared, the man gathered a handful of snow, shaped it into a ball, and hit her in the back of the head. She kicked snow at his legs, so he threw another snowball that narrowly missed smacking her in the face. She'd never had a snowball fight before, but it was fun. She found herself grinning as her snowball struck him in the chest and he flailed. Their mission fell to the back of her mind as she outran him to avoid getting snow shoved down her shirt.

"Kana-chan! Look! That's where we need to go!" Tobi pointed to the mountains in the distance and she squinted at the white peaks. The clouds hovering around the mountains made it impossible to see anything other than white. Her sharingan only allowed her to see snow in the distance. "Huh. Looks like it's still snowing up there," he noted, head tipped to the side in thought. "I wonder how bad the pass will be."

"Terrible. Think about the snow drifts. The pathways up the mountains won't be pretty either. This mission must pay well."

"Mhm! It's the biggest mission Tobi has been on since forever!"

"Then I guess we better not fuck it up."

As expected, the mountain pass was a mess. Snow accumulated between the mountains and the wind whipped the snow around until they were in whiteout conditions. Tobi came up with the grand idea to hold hands, so they wouldn't get separated. Kana didn't want to hold hands, but she didn't want to get lost in the pass, so she suffered through it. When they found a pathway leading up the third mountain, Tobi tugged on her hand and they began the ascent. The wind was harsh and her skin burned whenever a gust smacked her in the face. Unlike her, Tobi had no problems with the harsh environment. She surmised that the mystery behind the white matter on his body had something to do with his ability to handle the elements. Partway up the mountain, he slid on ice and she grabbed his cloak to keep him from sliding off the edge of the narrow path. They made eye contact and she took his hand again. He happily swung their hands.

"This is the never-ending pathway," she complained, gritting her teeth. She flexed her fingers and her toes, testing the feeling in her extremities. "The cold doesn't bother you?" He hummed, then shook his head. She didn't know if he'd answer honestly, so she held onto her question for several minutes. "Is it because of the white matter? It's mixed with your chakra."

"Not much bothers me!"

"What does?"

"Ah ah, I'm not telling you that, Kana-chan."

"It won't matter when you're dragging around my frozen corpse."

When the conditions didn't improve, Tobi finally relented and they took shelter in a cave. She hated the fact that she squished herself against him to leach some of his body heat, but she hated the thought of dying in that frozen wasteland. The weather took hours to calm; when the heavy snowfall ended, they resumed their journey. Tobi saw lights in the distance and he pointed to the outline of Kazahana castle. The castle was done in the traditional style of older castles and its rooftop was covered in a thick layer of snow. The pine trees around it rose into the sky, the green also covered in snow. Up to that point, Kana hadn’t asked about Tobi’s plan to kill the daimyo and capture the castle, so she had an idea of her own. Before they reached the direct route to the castle and stepped into sight of the viewing tower, Kana tugged on Tobi’s hand. The castle was breathtaking, and in the snowy landscape, she understood the true meaning behind the name. Killing the daimyo was a simple, straightforward mission, but they also needed to assassinate his daughter, Koyuki. Their client, Kanahana Doto, didn’t care about other casualties. The man was in it for some kind of treasure, which was laughable at best, considering the nation was nearly bankrupt. But it wasn’t Kana’s position to mock the client.

“Do you even know how many shinobi are present in the castle?”

“Hm. A lot! Probably.” She gave him a flat look and he rubbed the back of his head. He likely knew the answer to the question but chose to play the oblivious card to keep her on her toes. “Tobi can’t remember everything,” he explained, excusing his feigned lapse. Sighing through her nose, she let him continue with the charade. “How bad could it be? The castle looks pretty small from here,” he noted. She flicked his ear.

“I hate that you act like such a simpleton when I clearly need you to be serious.”

“Alright! Tobi can be serious too. Just stick with me! How hard could it be?”

“You probably shouldn’t have said that.”

Gaining entry into the castle wasn't as easy as she'd hoped. There was one main entrance to the castle and one servant entrance, so they used the servant entrance, which left them in a long, narrow hallway leading into the cellar. Halfway through the hallway, they heard footsteps behind them, so Kana motioned for Tobi to keep going while she confronted the two servants returning to the castle. She struck one over the head and the other one turned to run, so she stabbed him at the base of his skull. She grabbed them by their winter cloaks and dragged their bodies down the length of the hallway to the cellar, where Tobi helped her stash them underneath piles of clean linen. Tobi pretended to wipe his hands clean, while she grabbed his arm and tugged him along. The castle was beautiful from the exterior, and the interior first floor had stunning hardwood floors that looked brand new. Despite the beauty, the castle was still drafty, the chill in the air all the welcoming they received.

Kana felt multiple signatures in the castle, all of them spread out among the floors. The daimyo wasn't a shinobi, so she focused on smaller chakra signatures, then one that felt familiar. The person was on the second floor, so she gained Tobi’s attention and pointed to the ceiling. The staircase that they spotted had six guards at the bottom, all of them conversing. Considering their mission was an assassination mission, Kana stopped Tobi from walking over to the guards and they searched for a back staircase, which they located in the large kitchen. Four servants moved around, clearly preparing food for lunch. That time, Tobi walked into the kitchen and startled the women, so Kana whistled, drew their attention to her, and manipulated their minds until blood ran from their noses and eyes. They dropped to the ground, everything they'd been carrying clattering to the floor. Tobi eyed the bodies, then nudged one with the toe of his boot.

"This is an assassination mission. I know you know what that means."

"Let's burn it down!"

"You want to burn the whole castle down for two people? There are sixty-seven other people in this castle, not counting the twelve outside."

"Mhm. Let's burn it down. It's less work. Our client agreed. Is that a problem, Kana-chan?"

She shook her head, because she didn't trust herself to remain calm enough for a verbal response. He took one of her hands, lacing their fingers together as he led the way up the cramped service stairway. She'd killed people she'd deemed innocent, so that wasn't her problem; after all, their lives didn't concern her. What bothered her was the fact that he wasn't open with her about mission details. She knew he didn't completely trust her, but she hated being in the dark. When he went to continue to the next floor, she squeezed his hand and led him down the second floor hallway. The familiar chakra signature was at the end of the hallway. Unsurprisingly, there were two guards stationed outside of the door. Kana approached them, while Tobi waited for her to draw them away from the door. When he slipped inside, she stabbed one in the chest and broke the other man's neck. She heard a shout, then she smelled smoke. Tobi calmly exited the door and left it open behind him. Flames had already ignited the bed, devouring the daimyo's corpse. For once, Tobi wasn't useless.

The wood burnt well, the tatami easily catching the flames. Kana had the chakra, so she aided in their endeavor to destroy the picturesque castle. When they found the little girl's room, the guards engaged them while a servant hurried away with the young princess. Kana severed a guard's arm and took off past him. She glanced back to make sure Tobi could handle himself, but he had no trouble dodging attacks and letting the guards kill each other. She hit the servant in the back with a kunai and he tumbled down the steep stairs and landed in a mess of limbs at the bottom. The girl shrieked and tried to fight Kana, but Kana slapped her hard and the girl fell down the stairs too, breaking her leg in the process.

Her name was Koyuki, and she cried for her father as Kana stabbed her twice in the chest, one puncturing her lung and one hitting her heart. The girl wore a purple crystal as a necklace, so Kana yanked it from around the girl's neck and tied it around her own, a souvenir for the road. Before she could turn around, she felt embers drawing near. He stood at the top of the servant staircase and descended the stairs to join her in the kitchen. He touched the crystal hanging down between her breasts and she nudged the girl's corpse.

"It's nice. The other two floors are on fire. We need to go." He didn't use his ridiculous Tobi voice so she nodded. He led the way out of the kitchen and into the main hall, where they were ambushed. The remaining guards prepared for a standoff, so Kana drew her wakizashi and got into a stance while she heard Obito sigh. "Make it quick. No survivors."

"That's the greatest thing you've ever said to me."

They separated and Kana relied solely on kenjutsu. The guards weren’t worth the chakra, and despite the castle’s massive size, she didn’t feel that she had enough room to use fire release techniques without trapping them inside of the building. She enjoyed kenjutsu, which had been her main focus as a kid. Her sensei had told her she was a natural and her posture and movements were precise and aggressive. She caught a female guard in the gut and her mind took her back to her parents’ home, to the moment when her father died. The image of her father’s face appeared on the woman’s body; she had to shake her head a few times to clear her vision and remain in the present.

A blade caught her right upper arm and she stomped on the man’s left foot, punched him in the gut, and cut his head off. She killed them, one after another, before she was forced to use her sharingan, and then her mangekyou, easily anticipating their moves with subtle muscle movements. She countered every strike. When she heard something cracking, she slowed her movements and she raised her head to look at the ceiling. A large crack ran across the ceiling and it groaned, as if under pressure. When the wood gave way, the ceiling fell over Obito. There was a moment when she could have frozen, but she moved without thought. He looked up at the ceiling, taking a kunai to the chest in the process. He had time to move, but he froze, the beams and burning remnants intent on burying him. She tackled him and they landed hard on the floor. The debris buried a few of their enemies, and the remainder were struck with wood spikes that exploded from the floor.

Obito looked off to the side, his lone eye focused on the impaled guards around the room. Some of them had tried escaping, but none of them moved then. He’d killed them with wood release, and she felt as if she were staring at the ghost of the Shodaime. The main staircase collapsed and broke the spell between them. Groaning, Kana forced herself to her feet and helped Obito stand. The smoke was getting to her, making it difficult to breathe. Her eyes watered and she wiped at them with the back of her right hand. They needed to move, but Obito stared at the carnage, clearly transported to some other moment in his life. Kana tugged on his right hand, but he didn’t move. She stood in front of him and placed her hands on his shoulders. He looked at her, but she felt as if he wasn’t seeing her at all. She used her mangekyou on him, burying him in memories of their time together, hoping to draw him out of the past. He drew her into his arms and they left the burning castle behind, appearing in his concrete, maze of a world. He called it kamui.

“Obito.” He took his mask off and threw it as far as he could. The mask landed with a thud on another slab of concrete. He ran a hand over his messy hair and she tried touching his shoulder, but he slapped her hand aside. “It’s alright. We aren’t in the castle anymore. It’s over. We’re here now. Look around. Pick out things around you. Focus.” She spoke to him in a calm voice, hoping her own coping techniques worked for him. He actually listened to her. He looked around the dimension and his eyes settled on her. “What happened?”

He frowned, clearly reluctant to speak about the incident. She gave up on an explanation and settled for sitting on the ground. Her wakizashi was beside her, the noise of the blade connecting with the stone echoing in their space. She hissed as she examined the wound on her right upper arm. The slice was uneven and deeper than she’d hoped. She needed stitches, and she knew that the wound would leave an ugly scar behind, one of the few marring her body. He was slow to move, but he joined her on the ground, sitting down next to her to examine the wound. His poking and prodding irritated her, but she didn’t move away from him.

“It needs stitches. Do you have a first-aid kit?”

“Do you know how? No offense, but you aren’t a doctor, Obito.”

“I’m not an idiot, Kana.”

“Sometimes you act like one.”

He pressed on the wound and she backhanded his chest. The injury he’d received was fully healed, as if he’d never been hit. If he noticed her staring, he didn’t say anything. Reluctantly, she produced a scroll from her hip and presented it to him. She didn’t watch as he retrieved the first-aid kit sealed inside. She slipped her arm from her sleeve to allow him access to her upper arm. He didn’t numb the area, so she felt his every move. The feeling was unpleasant, but she’d experienced worse. He frowned as he worked, brows drawn, eyes squinted at the wound. His expression had her snickering. He looked ridiculous. But the question about his wood release hovered at the forefront of her mind. It would explain his odd chakra signature. With the sutures in place, he admired his work and she wrinkled her nose at the perfect stitches. Her own would have looked worse, if she could have done them herself. He smirked at her and she rolled her eyes and shoved his shoulder. He finished his work by wrapping a bandage around her arm.

“What happened back there, Obito?” He wavered, and she saw it in his eyes. He packed away the used supplies and sealed the kit back into the scroll, then he presented it to her. She fixed her shirt and he sighed. The scroll passed between them, but he didn’t respond.

“It was a cave in.” She didn’t understand, and his eyes focused on a spot in the distance. She thought she’d lost him, right then and at the castle. “My final mission as a Konoha shinobi. There was a cave in. I was crushed by a boulder while saving Kakashi’s life,” he frowned, glaring at the mention of Kakashi’s name. She didn’t understand the hostility, but she didn’t think he would answer her if she asked why he hated Kakashi so much. The Obito she remembered didn’t seem like the person to do that, but she wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. She felt as if she’d missed knowing a great little boy. “I should have died there. They left me to die there. But,” he trailed off, and she knew that was the extent of his willingness to open up to her. She patted his shoulder.

“But you’re here now, being a massive dick to everyone around you. Seems like a happy ending.” He snorted at her words, but he didn’t move from his spot. She wondered if time worked differently there, because it felt as if they’d been there for hours, or maybe it was more like a few minutes. He rubbed the back of his head and she caught his gaze on her. “Is it because they left you to die? Is that why you hate Kakashi?” She took a risk by asking him in a direct manner, but he didn’t react negatively.

“He’s friend-killer Kakashi for a reason.”

“So it was her.”

“I wanted to see the world with him,” Obito said, the hostility noticeably absent from his tone. She sat crisscross on the ground and he brought one knee up toward his chest. There was something beyond the hatred, and she had a feeling she understood exactly what it was, but she knew better than to broach the subject. Whatever other feelings he had for Kakashi didn’t concern her. But she wondered if he loved Kakashi too. “I trusted him, and he killed her. It set me on this path. I woke up to the world and didn’t like what I saw.” She toyed with the crystal necklace and he looked over at her, making eye contact for the first time since his admission.

“So Rin’s death was the catalyst,” Kana frowned, trying to imagine holding onto burning hatred for someone she once considered a friend. Her team hadn’t been perfect, but they became a second family for her. She couldn’t imagine hating any of them. “He’s changed, Obito,” Kana tried to explain, earning a bitter laugh from him. She shouldn’t have tried, but she felt the need to say something, anything, to try and reach him. She didn’t know if she did it for her own benefit or not. “What happened was an accident.”

“I don’t care if it was an accident! I trusted him!” He yelled at her and she recoiled, shocked by his sudden change in temperament. He gritted his teeth and turned his head away.

“He thinks about you every day, Obito. He makes every day count because of you. He visits the memorial stone for you, rain or shine, sometimes twice a day, when he can. You mean everything to him.”

She didn’t expect a response, so his silence didn’t bother her. At first, she’d been skeptical about her no-strings-attached arrangement with Kakashi. He’d been in deep. She hated to admit it, but she’d heard him say Obito’s name and she’d nearly tossed him out of her apartment for it. That was when they agreed to stop filling the empty spaces of the deceased. Obito didn’t seem to care, but he hid so many parts of himself. He was a man of many masks. And she understood that well. He hadn’t completely shut down, or he would have stormed off or attacked her. Maybe they’d finally changed their dynamic. She tried to think of what she would want to hear, what she would want someone to do, so she placed a hand on his knee. She wasn’t one for hugs. She used sex as a cure-all. He brushed her hand off his knee and got to his feet. He went to collect his mask and she forced herself up, even as her muscles protested. He didn’t speak to her when they left his world behind, reappearing in the village where they’d brought down their barriers. Love was complicated. It was easier to hate.

Chapter Text

Doto was an ugly man in more ways than one. He waited to contact them until he verified the deaths of his brother and niece. Once he’d had his loyal followers search the remains of Kazahana castle, he arranged a meeting to discuss the remainder of their payment. Whatever the man had hoped to discover was entirely lost. There was no family secret, no family treasure, nothing but the burnt remains of seventy-nine people. His fury wasn’t completely expressed in the written correspondences, so when he showed up at their meeting spot, a quaint café on the edge of that sleepy village near the border, an entourage of Yukigakure shinobi in tow, he showed up with proverbial flames burning beneath his skin. Obito had offered to meet with their client, but she’d decided to accompany him. The moment Doto was seated at the table, discussion went from what she wanted for dinner to the murders of the man’s last two family members.

Obito had chosen a dark mask with stripes across it for their meeting, and he showed up as Madara. Kana wisely chose to keep her mouth shut about his identity; for the most part, she ignored their boring conversation revolving around a retelling of that bloody mission. Doto snuck glances at her, clearly wondering about her silence and her place in the mission, but Obito refused to drag her into their discussion. Obito wanted the remainder of the payment, nothing more.

“What we were looking for was never recovered. That was part of the arrangement.” She knew Doto meant to break the contract and deny them compensation for a job they actually completed, to the letter. Kana sighed and his scowl was directed at her. Obito chuckled, conveying amusement, even though his chakra signature felt like a wildfire as it brushed against her senses. “What’s so funny?” Obito stabbed his empty dango skewer through the man’s left hand, pinning it to the table. The shinobi standing at Doto’s back shifted into fighting stances, so Kana rested her hand on the hilt of her wakizashi, daring them to make the first move.

“We had a written agreement to assassinate the daimyo and his daughter, and we completed the mission. I’m here for the remainder of our payment. Do you really want to make an enemy out of us?” Doto finally pulled the skewer from his bleeding hand and grabbed a handful of napkins to apply pressure to the wound. She’d heard all about Snow’s chakra armor, but she didn’t need chakra to face him. Letting him live seemed like a terrible idea. She signed the fact to Obito and he drummed his fingers on the tabletop, clearly thinking about their options.

"Kill them."

Doto made the decision for them, so she used the table to shove herself backwards in her chair, dodging a kick that broke their table. Obito remained seated, using his abilities to remain there as the Yukigakure shinobi tried to hit him. The bystanders fled the café, giving Kana more room to work. Property damage didn't concern her, so she kicked a table that crashed into a shinobi, sending him falling into another table. Kana locked blades with another man, then punched him in the throat, crushing his windpipe. While she drew the shinobi to her, Obito faced Doto. She didn't need to warn him about the chakra armor. A blade nearly caught her in the kidney, so her concentration went back to her own fight.

None of the shinobi she fought wore chakra armor, so she sent a flame dragon at them as they fled the café, catching them before they could scatter. The flames caught the doorway, but snow and ice from the rooftop extinguished the flames before they could spread. Doto ran out, and she thought he might flee, but he took to the streets to manipulate ice. Kana's enemies remained on the ground, their corpses smoking. The smell of burnt hair and flesh spread until it was all she could smell. Obito sent a flame dragon at the ice dragon and the two collided between them, exploding into freezing rain. When Obito managed to destroy the crystal maintaining the barrier around Doto, Kana stabbed him in the back, her sharp blade going right through the armor.

More shinobi emerged from hiding, so Kana made a line of flames that caught a few of them. The remainder tried to fight Obito, but their attempts to hit him were ridiculous at best. She didn't know what Obito hoped to accomplish, but he took kunai to the back to trap Doto in a genjutsu reminiscent of the one used on Yagura. The shinobi escaped with the injured man, and Obito stopped her from giving chase.

"He won't be a problem anymore," Obito explained.

He reached back to try and pull the kunai from his body, but she did it for him. Blood rose to the surface and soaked into his shirt and his cloak. He grimaced as she fought to remove the kunai. The wound was deep and bled too much, but the problem was the sticky blue liquid mixing with his blood. The kunai had been covered in poison, showing that the shinobi always planned to kill them. She didn't know the extent of his healing ability, but she swiped a gloved finger over the blue liquid and brought it to her nose. The poison smelled bitter and peppery, which wasn’t familiar to her. Originally, she’d thought it was a poisonous plant. He glanced over his shoulder at her and she offered her hand to him so he could take in the bitter, peppery smell of the poison. He moved his mask, sniffed the poison, and frowned, clearly just as uncertain. She couldn’t think of anything in Snow with that scent. The land was nothing but snow. She removed her glove and tossed it, not trusting herself to avoid accidentally poisoning herself.

“You need to get it off of your skin. Let’s go,” Kana said, taking the lead. He didn’t put up a fight when she nudged him. “Have you ever been poisoned before?” He hesitated, clearly thinking about his life thus far, then he shook his head. Neither of them knew if Obito’s healing abilities extended to poisons, which left them with little options. She knew plants and their uses, so she felt confident in saying it wasn’t a plant. He seemed perfectly fine, but it was already in his bloodstream, circulating through his body. Tobi might have made a joke about her sucking the poison out—Obito was surprisingly silent. “What did you do to him?”

“We’ll be paying him another visit soon. He owes me, and I intend to collect.”

“So you just decided to turn Snow into another puppet government?”

“It’s a start. Why? You don’t approve?”

“Is this something you plan on doing with all of the smaller nations?”

“Mn. It wasn’t my intention,” he admitted, shrugging. She liked the idea, if only for the message it would send to larger villages. Smaller nations had pushed boundaries and started wars; larger nations had pushed boundaries and started wars. If they controlled the governments, there would be no reason to push for Tsuki no Me. Conquering the villages would put Akatsuki in power, and the wars would stop. Perhaps it was simple of her to come to that conclusion, but it sounded better than starting a large-scale war with a handful of people. And when had she started believing in their cause? She didn’t know. “Do you want to conquer them all?”

He sounded genuinely interested, but they paused their conversation at the door to their inn. It gave her more time to think about the possibilities that route offered. Akatsuki already owned Amegakure, and by extension, all of the Land of Rain. And Obito controlled Yagura, reigning over Kirigakure, another hidden village for the group. She hummed at the thought. Her attention shifted to him when he opened the door for her and motioned her inside. She had rude words on the tip of her tongue. She meant to ask him if the poison affected his mind. Instead, she brushed off his odd behavior and went inside. She took care of securing them a room, while he went upstairs to wait for her. The woman behind the desk hadn’t seen his entrance, and it saved them the trouble of explaining that Obito wore many masks. She accepted the key to their room, but she hesitated at the desk.

“Is there a doctor in this village? Maybe a medic?”

“There’s one about an hour away. Did you need medical attention?”

“Thank you.”

She met Obito on the second floor. He’d waited for her near the top of the stairs. With his mask on, he concealed his state from her when she needed to see his face. She wasn’t a medic, but she needed to know if the poison had started working on him. They had the same room from their last stay, as if the owner remembered her. The atmosphere between them had changed, so she didn’t make a comment about the room’s single bed—he didn’t seem bothered by their arrangement. Kana went to the window and parted the curtains enough to let some natural light into the room. With the snow on the ground, the world outside of their window was bright, almost blinding in its blanket of pure white. Obito removed his mask and she saw the sweat gathered on his brow. He tried to touch the injury on his back, but he couldn’t reach it. He stopped his attempts and began removing his cloak and his top. While he went to check his back in the bathroom mirror, Kana unsealed her first-aid kit and went through some of the supplies.

“Are you feeling anything?” Kana looked up at him as he returned to the bedroom. He sat down beside her and watched her pull on a pair of gloves from the kit. “Nausea? Numbness? Tingling? Any muscle contractions or chest pain?” He turned so that she had a view of his back. There was swelling around the entry point and some slight muscle spasms. When she touched around the area, he didn’t complain about her hurting him. She tested her luck by poking a finger into the wound, but he didn’t react. “Numbness. Is this something you can heal from on your own? If you’re wrong, this could kill you. Not that I would complain. I’d pack up my shit and go home,” she joked, earning a laugh from him. Maybe she meant it, and maybe she didn’t. He tensed, whether he did it intentionally or not, so she moved her hand away. Cleaning the wound was simple, but the poison had already progressed to his bloodstream. “I think I should go get the medic.”

“Minor nausea,” he admitted, after a beat of silence. He glanced back at her and she showed off a swab she’d taken, revealing blue mixed with his blood. She bagged and sealed the swab, cleaned the wound once more, and pressed a bandage over the injury. “I didn’t think I was susceptible to poison,” he noted, clearly surprised that he was experiencing symptoms.

“I think I’m going to retrieve the medic. It’s about an hour there and an hour back. Maybe I could send a message ahead,” Kana thought aloud, removing her gloves and sealing them in another bag to toss them into the trash. She wondered if she’d return. The thought of running off still appealed to her, even if she and Obito were on better terms. She didn’t know how she felt about him dying, not after the little pieces of himself that he shared with her. “Don’t give me that look,” Kana frowned, looking at the skepticism written all over Obito’s face. “I’ll come back, dumbass. Probably.” The last part was mumbled, but he clearly heard the word as he flicked her forehead.

“You have no reason to come back. You told me I kidnapped you. You’d take the opportunity to flee.”

“You’d use your dying breath to curse me, and I’d feel your hatred burning in the underworld.”

“I think I just need to give my body time to combat the poison.”

“It depends on the potency. It could lead to cardiac issues or respiratory issues, and it’s pretty close to your spine. Was that genjutsu worth this?” He frowned and looked away, so she huffed and contemplated her options once more. He didn’t trust her to return, and he was right to doubt her, since she didn’t even know what she would do once she left the inn. “I’ll have the owner send a message. If it’s a false alarm, I’ll just kill the guy and no one will ever know,” she shrugged.

He couldn’t see her reaction, but he still chuckled. He likely took it as a joke, but she meant the words. The red spots on the bandage encouraged her to confront the owner. After the message was sent, she returned to the room and found Obito lying on his side, staring at the snowflakes dancing outside of the window. She’d tried comforting people a few times, but she wasn’t the best. She sat down next to him and tapped her right index finger against her thigh, trying to think of inspirational words, maybe something to give him hope for the future. He looked tired, and she worried that the poison was working on his heart or lungs. Idly, she picked at a loose thread on the comforter. It would be a shame if he died. Where would that leave her? She didn’t want to work with Pein, but the man would still expect her to work with the group. Losing Obito wouldn’t change anything for her. She did enjoy sleeping with Obito, but good sex wasn’t that difficult to find. She’d been with male prostitutes before, during a particularly nasty dry spell. But Obito talked to her. She bit down on her lower lip and looked at the back of his head. They weren’t friends, but they managed to work together well.

“It would be unfortunate if you died,” she spoke without thinking. He laughed at her words and she rolled her eyes at him and went back to pulling at the loose thread. She’d tried making him feel better, but she’d obviously failed. “I’m trying to make you feel better. What the fuck do you want me to say? This builds character?” He laughed harder and she scowled at him before slapping him in the back of the head with a pillow. He took the hit without complaint.

“Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not going to die.” He turned to face her, making himself comfortable on his left side. Brows furrowed, she searched his eyes for an answer to her silent question. He’d sounded so certain, as if he were truly invincible, the very last to fall. "Do you remember what you told me about my chakra signature?" She did, and her eyes went from his face to his bare chest. She felt the chakra there, dark, steady, constant. "You shouldn't worry about me."

"I'm not worried. I'm more aware of the fact that I'm in this mess now and you don't get to abandon ship and leave me with these creeps. I'd have to run off with Kakuzu, and I probably wouldn't last very long."

"You'd run off with Kakuzu? Out of your options, you'd choose him?"

"He gave me peanuts, and he didn't murder me. At this point, the bar isn't very high."

"Did Kakashi get to see you this way?"

She blinked a few times, not understanding the question. When she grasped what he meant, she frowned. She'd already pulled the loose thread, so she had nothing to distract herself. He had to bring up Kakashi. The question hovered over her, reminding her that she didn't deserve pleasantries, reminding her of the fact that her hands were stained with her family's blood. She and Kakashi had been progressing, clearly experimenting with something new. None of it mattered anymore. Nothing in Konoha mattered anymore. Her home wasn't there. Kakashi hadn't heard a lot of her jokes, mostly sarcasm, and they didn't share as much with one another. If they'd had more time together, she might have opened up more. She'd spent too long running from feelings. It was exhausting.

"No, he didn't," she replied, her voice soft. He hummed, as if he'd expected the answer. She wondered if Obito intentionally manipulated her to let her guard down. She wondered if she was the sorry type to bond with her captor. Had she shown her whole hand? It was effortless. "I did pretty well at isolating myself. You get into a mission mindset and carry it through your daily life. I don't really have that right now. It's not the same. I'd like to think that he would have, at some point. Who knows."

"You aren't terrible." The words took her back to Konoha and it took everything to keep her face blank. She told herself she hadn't made a mistake. She told herself she'd done the right thing. Obito offered her a crooked smile and she sighed, a small smile following.

"Yeah. You aren't terrible either."

Chapter Text

"Do you want to conquer the smaller nations?"

He leaned against the headboard, his back supported by pillows. The medic had prescribed fluids and pain medication, but Obito hadn't complained about any pain. The numbness crept over him, confining him to the bed until his body successfully combated the poison. Just as she'd thought, a plant wasn't responsible for his suffering. They'd harvested poison from the tropical poison dart frog and used it in amounts great enough to kill an ordinary man. But not him. Kana toyed with the crystal hanging from her leather necklace. His eyes went from her face to the purple gem, and she finally released it, allowing it to rest against her chest.

"We don't have enough people for that." It wasn't really an answer. They both knew it. Taking control of other lands put them in a position of power. She admitted to herself that she admired what he'd done in Kirigakure. The world thought Yagura was mad. "I like power," she admitted, sharing the gist of her thoughts. He frowned in thought, so she sat crisscross on her side of the bed and admired the remnants of her green nail polish. "How do you plan to achieve your dream? You want me to locate the jinchuriki. Do you plan on using their chakra? Yagura would be an easy first step. You already own his ass." Obito chuckled at her choice of words, but they knew she wasn't wrong.

"I plan on extracting the tailed beasts and harnessing their chakra. Do you remember the tale of the first jinchuriki? It's not fiction."

"You want to become the jinchuriki of the ten tails."

"I do. You aren't going to call me insane?"

"We both know you're insane. I shouldn't need to remind you. You're going to need a few people to pull this off. Do you plan on gathering other sensors?" She surprised them both with her willingness to follow along with his plan. When he shook his head, she arched a brow at him. "How do you expect to find them? Spies? Who has a spy network like that?"

"You're the only sensor we need. Didn't you tell me you're the best?" He smirked at her as she rolled her eyes. She didn't argue with him because she'd told him the truth. She believed she could lead him right to the jinchuriki, giving him the ability to extract the tailed beasts. "I'm a sensor, but my range isn't as great yet. I need more practice. You make it easier. When I don't need you anymore, I can dispose of you." She clicked her tongue at him, the words only irritating her.

"Is this the part where I cry and beg you to spare me? Because it'll be a cold day in hell, Obito." He laughed and she slapped his thigh, so he pinched her side. She thought about hitting him with her pillow, but she remembered the last time they'd gotten into a pillow fight. "What if I could suggest someone I've met a few times on assignments?"

"Am I going to need to kidnap them too?"

"Fuck you. No. He's a missing nin from Sunagakure. Akasuna no Sasori. He single-handedly took down a kage. That's what you need, right? The last time we met, I fought him and his poison had me in the hospital for eleven days. It was systemic. He's amazing at what he does."

"You sound like his biggest fan."

"Yes, Obito. He gets me hot and bothered." She said it in a bland tone and he laughed at her expression. When he finally stopped laughing, she toyed with the crystal again. "Do you want my input or not?" He already hated working with Pein and Konan, as evidenced by their forced encounters. Obito wanted things done his way. He had control issues. She had to approach the discussion as if she were making suggestions that aligned with his thoughts.

"If this turns out to be a waste of time," he began, cut off by her hand pressing over his mouth. He sighed through his nose and gave up speaking to her. When she felt confident enough to move her hand from over his mouth, she fixed him with a hard stare. He arched a brow, clearly waiting for her to put some words together. She shook her head at him.

"It won't be a waste of time. I guarantee it." She couldn’t guarantee it, and they both knew that. He chose to accept her words, because she would try to make good on them, even if it did end up being another kidnapping.

"This already sounds like another kidnapping." The fact that he voiced her thoughts had her smirking. It felt good to be on the same page with him. She admitted she already felt valued. He made her feel as if they were a team, and she hadn’t felt so connected since she’d had her genin team. It was a sharp contrast from their early days, where he thought he could force her along with harsh words and violence. The fact that she had adjusted so well bothered her. “What is it? I’ll seriously consider him, if you’re suggesting him. I’ll look into it.” She felt more in control of her life, as odd as it seemed. She wondered if the odd mood would carry over, traveling with her through the days.

“It’s weird when you aren’t being a bastard.”

“Yeah, well, you aren’t being a bitch. Funny how that works, isn’t it?”

“Bite me.”

“I’m supposed to be resting, remember?” She pinched his left cheek a little too hard, so he swatted her hand aside. She wondered what he thought about in the silence, if he lived off regret like she lived off regret. He tugged on her right ear and she wrinkled her nose at him. She opened her mouth to say something, but the sickening chakra made another appearance, that time at the outskirts of the village. He let go of her ear and stared out the window. “Something happened,” he scowled, forcing himself to his feet. He opened the window and let flurries fly into their warm room.

“You know the person with this chakra? It’s foul. It’s a black void. It’s hard to explain,” Kana mumbled, joining him at the window. She saw a figure emerge from the ground and she almost snapped the curtains closed. The creature was inhuman. Half of its body was white, while the other half was all black. The creature looked like a venus flytrap, and while she’d seen a lot of impossible things, she didn’t think she’d see a plant man. “That thing followed me. It’s been following us.” She hadn’t missed the black cloak with red clouds, but the feeling screamed danger. He seemed unbothered, and she didn’t understand how he could trust him. He wasn’t moving, and the man in the street made no move to approach the inn. Against her better judgment, she went to collect her cloak. “Stay here.”

She pulled on her boots and took quick steps through the inn, bypassing the startled owner on the stairs. The creature was waiting on the street, eyes focused on the front door. Kana slammed the door behind her, causing stray icicles to fall from the overhang. She brushed stray snow from her cloak and slowly approached the stranger, her muscles tense, instincts telling her to be prepared for a quick betrayal. Jaw clenched, she looked up toward the window and found Obito watching them. The black side of the man’s head smiled at her, the look too feral to provide any comfort, while the white side seemed too curious about her. He looked at the window once more, then he focused on her, clearly deciding to address her rather than Obito. She didn’t care that staring was rude. She was shameless in the way she frowned at him and looked him over from head to toe. She thought she heard him mutter about how she would taste and that had her crossing her arms over her chest. Defensive as it looked, she tried to communicate that she would murder him if he even touched her.

“There’s trouble in Kirigakure.” One spoke.

“You don’t look like much.” Another spoke.

Kana looked from the creature to the second-floor window and signed to Obito. He wanted to shout at them, but he chose to sign back to her, asking specific questions in broken sign language that couldn’t fully communicate his demands. She turned her back to Obito and chose to handle the conversation on her own. Most of his signing had been straightforward, so she understood what he wanted to learn from the creature. Something was wrong in Kirigakure, and she had a feeling she knew what had happened. Zetsu—his name was Zetsu—informed her that a man wielding one byakugan had broken the genjutsu over the Mizukage and the young man had murdered Itachi’s new partner. She instantly thought of the teenager facing a kage on his own, let alone a rampaging jinchuriki.

She stared into space for a moment, reaching for the familiar feel of Yagura’s chakra, but her senses came up empty. Over and over, she searched, fully focused on the jinchuriki. She counted eight of them. She didn’t need Zetsu to confirm that Yagura was dead. Itachi had won. She wondered if her status as one of the few survivors of her clan made her consider him as some sort of ally, someone she would care about. She still remembered their run-in at the market and her chest ached for Kakashi, but she pushed those feelings deep down and watched Zetsu disappear into the earth. She stood there for several minutes, trying to gather her thoughts and weigh her options, then she returned to the room, where Obito had taken a seat on the side of the bed.

“We need to get to Kirigakure.” She didn’t bother sugarcoating it, and he didn’t seem shocked by her words. He tugged the needle from his arm and pressed two fingers over the hole to stop the bleeding. She retrieved his boots and his cloak, tossing them to him, then she grabbed her wakizashi. He grabbed his mask from the bedside table, and they were swept into kamui, where he tugged his cloak on and stepped into his boots. “It’s Ao. He’s the only one with the byakugan outside of the Hyuga clan. He lifted the genjutsu. I can locate Itachi, or I can locate him. It’s your choice.”

“He just had to die, didn’t he?” Obito growled at the air around them, then he grabbed her hand. Without warning, they appeared in the swamps. She sank into the murky water and gagged at the stench and the feel of the tepid water around her boots. “We’ll collect Itachi later. Find Ao. I’m going to rip that eye out.” She felt the familiar burn of his anger on her senses and closed her eyes. She felt for Ao, starting in the general area and expanding outward. The larger the area, the more chakra she put into her technique. It was like a subtle return, a sign that she’d found the appropriate chakra signature.

“He’s outside of Kirigakure. Almost one hundred and twenty miles northwest of here. He’s not alone,” Kana frowned, opening her eyes. She pursed her lips, trying to identify the chakra signatures located near Ao, but she’d never met the shinobi. She was confident enough to say they were shinobi and at least one had a strong foundation in fire release techniques, so much so that she thought she’d found a foreigner in the Land of Water. “Killing Ao isn’t going to solve anything, you know. Not that I’m against ripping his byakugan out,” Kana shrugged, stepping onto the water’s surface. Her boots squeaked and she sighed, disgusted by the thought of the water. “Maybe you could try communicating with me, unless you want it to turn out like our Kazahana mission, where I didn’t know jack shit.”

“Now isn’t the time, Kana.”

“I think this is a lost cause. I think you should pull out until they find another Mizukage. Maybe they’ll all kill each other and save you another murder spree.”

“I’m angry, and your attitude isn’t helping. We’re not pulling out of Kirigakure. I still have the Water daimyo. I didn’t jump into this. It’s careful plotting. You wouldn’t understand because you’re impulsive.”

“Fine. You’ll have plenty of time to plot. One hundred and twenty miles.”

She thought he might sigh or grumble, so his silence was a warning that he'd lost all patience with her. They didn't speak as they crossed the small straight separating the main island and the one they occupied. He didn't look in her direction, so she took point and kept them on course, relaxed enough to show him her back. In some weird way, she trusted him, and trust meant everything to her. Once they crossed the straight, Obito increased his pace, so she focused on Ao's chakra signature and flew through the trees. Running felt good. After hiking through the mountains, she welcomed the heat and humidity of the islands, even if it left a layer of sweat on her skin. She pulled her hair off of her neck and secured it with a ponytail holder and she swore she felt his fingers touching strands, but he still let her stew in silence.

Ao was on the move, so she changed direction, and Obito easily kept up with her, their transition flawless. Northwest became north, then the chakra signature remained steady. When lightning kissed her senses, she nearly missed the next branch. Obito stopped and caught her arm before she fell to the ground, but her focus was on Kakashi’s chakra signature somewhere within the Land of Water. Yugao didn’t have the distance that she had, so she was confident that she and Obito hadn’t been discovered. As he pulled her up, she caught the branch with both hands and finished the rest on her own. She lifted a hand and pointed east, her brows furrowed as she tried to get an estimated distance between them.

“It’s Team Ro. They’re east of here, about ninety miles.” She looked from the general direction to Obito, as if she expected him to change his mind. He continued north, so she followed him until she regained her position as lead. There was no reason for them to encounter the members of Team Ro. Obito didn’t want to be around Kakashi, and she couldn’t forget the look in Kakashi’s eyes the last time she’d seen him. “We’ll be in Yugao’s range. I’m warning you. We’ll have to pick up the pace. Our other option is heading farther west. It’s a longer path, but Ao’s chakra is stationary. What do you want to do?” She saw him glance to the east. “I think we should head west,” she admitted, frowning at her own reluctance to engage with her former comrades. She didn’t want to kill them. Without asking, Obito understood that.

“If they decide to engage, then we’ll fight them. My priority is Ao. Let’s go. We’re wasting daylight.”

“Wait!” He didn’t want to stop—she could tell—but she refused to follow him. The chakra signatures were on a collision course with Itachi and she didn’t know if she cared more about his safety or the fact that he was another jagged piece of the remnants of their clan. Obito gave her a sharp look, but she didn’t back down. “Itachi is sixty miles east of here. I don’t know why Ro is here, but they’re going to meet and there are three of them against one. Itachi’s chakra is low.” He looked in the direction of Ao, then to the east, where she continued tracking the approach of Team Ro. She wondered if Team Ro hunted Itachi, or whether they were involved with the change in power in Kirigakure. The resistance was known to accept outside help in more difficult missions, at least before Zabuza was forced to defect, along with the remaining swordsmen. “Let me go.”

She didn’t know why she made the request, and his narrowed eye told her that he still doubted her. Obito would sacrifice Itachi. She knew it in her very bones. Itachi was a powerful shinobi and a wonderful ally, but Obito had his own mission and it involved Ao. Kana remembered the look she and Itachi had exchanged, the same sense of loss communicated through their dark eyes. She’d wanted nothing to do with him, for the sole fact that he was the clan heir. But none of that mattered anymore. Those people were gone. If he denied her request, she didn’t know if she would fight the battle to change his mind. In the end, Itachi’s life or death had no effect on her. Maybe it was purely selfish of her, born of her own need to see Kakashi, to feel the shock of his chakra against her own, as if she would find something there that she’d missed in their last brief encounter. Some part of her reminded her that Kakashi was a loyal Konoha shinobi, and she’d dropped her loyalty the moment she’d forsaken the village. The scratch on her hitai-ate told the entire story, from beginning to end. She told herself she was loyal to herself and nothing more.

“Your weakness is going to get both of you killed.”

“I can handle this. It’s an extraction. Nothing more.”

“Meet me on the island where we started. Do I need to threaten you to get the message across?”

“I’m fucking coming back, alright? It’s clear that I’m stuck with you.” He relented, a single nod the only response she received from him. She didn’t need to tell him to continue north. She didn’t need to swear that she would return; she didn’t need to beg for his permission. He let her go. She didn’t look back.

Chapter Text

She tasted freedom for a second time and found it even sweeter. As the feeling of embers faded, she stretched her chakra out and took in the warmth and flow of nature chakra surrounding her. There was something about sensing it that relaxed her—nature chakra reminded her that she wasn’t alone. She couldn’t harness it or manipulate it, but it was there, steady, constant. She felt the exact moment when Yugao’s chakra met her own and revealed Itachi’s presence in the Land of Water. She’d hoped that her own chakra would mask Itachi’s, since she had all of her reserves, but she’d underestimated the Konoha shinobi, a mistake that would never happen a second time. There was no hesitation from either party. Yugao located Itachi and lightning became all Kana knew.

Itachi's chakra wavered, signaling that Ro had reached him first and they'd begun to fight. By the time Kana reached them, Yugao was on the ground, unconscious, and Tenzo and Kakashi had Itachi on the defense. Kakashi was the first to acknowledge her presence, and his attention shifted to her. Itachi was able to disarm Tenzo, but his chakra was too low for ninjutsu to counter the man's wood release. Though she wanted to focus on Kakashi, she didn't have a choice. When Itachi dropped to one knee, a hand over a bleeding eye, Kana decided that removing Tenzo had become her priority. She fought wood release with fire release, while Itachi recovered enough to keep Kakashi at a distance with kunai and shuriken. The teenager was dead on his feet, but he was stubborn, surprisingly persistent, and she respected him for it. She struggled to keep the upper hand, but he made the mistake of looking into her eyes. Rather than killing him, she chose to overwhelm him until his eyes rolled back into his head and he dropped to the ground.

“Stay out of this,” Kana instructed Itachi, glancing over her shoulder at the boy. He didn’t hesitate to nod, taking her command as a sign that he could relax. Even from a distance, she recognized Obito’s sharingan eye looking back at her. He didn’t waste time trying to trap her in a genjutsu, not when she could manipulate her own chakra well to disarm it. Her yin chakra was high because of her mangekyou. “I don’t want to hurt you, Kakashi, but I will.” It was a warning, a wasted attempt to get him to stand down. His eyes moved to Itachi, but she took a step to the side, blocking the man’s view of the teen. “Your fight is with me,” she frowned, drawing her wakizashi.

“You both turned against Konoha. My fight is with you both.”

“You’ll settle for me today.”

He thought he could avoid the power of her mangekyou by closing his eye, leaving her with Obito’s sharingan. It was a solid idea, but she knew that her mangekyou could overpower the eye, as she’d managed to attack Obito and successfully influence him. But she chose to spare him, just as she’d spared him before, as if they weren’t enemies. She loved him fiercely, all of her choices, all of her actions, screaming the fact at him. They locked blades and he swung at her. He was physically stronger, but she still dodged, disengaging, pulling back enough that his swing missed. Their blades locked again, her arms shaking as he put everything into his tanto strike. Their blades scraped along one another as she shifted her stance to keep him from getting a strike in. Unlike her, he had armor to protect him, so when she did get a hit in, she struck deep into his armor, nearly cutting it off of him. He swiped at her, aiming for her throat, but her hitai-ate deflected the blow, the blade digging into the metal plate, deepening the cut over the leaf pattern. She couldn’t tell if he meant to kill her or disarm her, and that confusion lasted until she disarmed him and they moved to ninjutsu.

She sent three fireballs at him and he created a thick earth wall. When the wall gave way, she knew he wasn’t behind it, because his chakra signature had disappeared underground. His hands went to grab her ankles, but she kicked one and jumped away. The earth gave way for him to emerge, but she didn’t wait for him to get up. She felt a chakra signature at her back, so she pivoted and kicked the clone in the side. It disappeared in a puff of smoke, but she heard the chirping of birds and her heart lodged in her throat. Her confusion at his driving actions vanished. He meant to kill her. When he moved, he moved with such speed, and she felt rooted to the spot. She saw the horror on Itachi’s face. She caught Kakashi's arm, stopping the attack before it could penetrate her chest. Her action kept her alive, but his chakra burnt her palm. The electricity gathered between them and they stared into one another’s eyes. She saw raw hurt in his eyes, but she saw determination too. Eyes narrowed, she caught him with her mangekyou and his control on the lightning vanished.

Angry, she chose to overwhelm him with memories of their time together, manipulating his brain. Originally, she hadn’t meant to hurt him, but her anger festered. He fought against it, but he didn’t succeed. She relinquished her hold on his forearm and he struck her in the side with a kunai, the last hit he landed before he fell to his knees, his eyes unfocused. The chakra burn on her right hand ached, feeling as if a multitude of needles punctured her skin. Her skin was splotchy in places, jagged lines stretching up from her hand to her forearm where the electricity had passed between them. He’d hit her so hard with the kunai that it remained in her side as she kicked him in the chest. She felt good when she felt his sternum give way.

“I told you I didn’t want to hurt you, you stupid bastard.” She pried the kunai from her side and threw it on the ground at his feet. He’d aimed for her liver, but he’d missed, whether he meant to or not. The wound bled too much, a sign that she needed medical attention. She kicked him hard in the side, sending him rolling across the ground. She heard him choke on blood. “Let’s get out of here,” she mumbled, her eyes raising from Kakashi’s masked face to Itachi. The horror on the teen’s face was replaced with indifference, but she’d seen enough to know that he wasn’t devoid of emotions.

“You left.” Kakashi’s voice broke between the words, showing he was having difficulty breathing and speaking to her. He should have been unconscious, signaling that she’d underestimated him, signaling that she’d shown mercy yet again. She closed her eyes, unable to look at him again. His head turned though, so when she opened her eyes, they looked at one another. “Why, Kana?” He was thoroughly confused, left adrift with unanswered questions. And she wanted to tell him that she’d done it for him; the perfect opportunity to return to Konoha had presented itself.

“I didn’t have a choice, Kakashi. Just leave it alone.”

“You told me you loved me.”

“That hasn’t changed. You just don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. Please don’t make me kill you.”

He turned his head away and left her with silence—he left her wanting. Kana took a deep breath, then she jerked her head to the side, signaling to Itachi that they were leaving. As they took to the trees, she pressed a hand over her left side, using pressure to slow the bleeding. She bought herself more time as they headed to the rendezvous point, knowing that Obito could help her. She’d saved Itachi’s life and broken her own heart, all at the same time. She didn’t think she had much of her heart left, but the shattered remains filling her chest cavity told her otherwise. In pain, physically and emotionally, she refused to speak to Itachi, and he seemed in no hurry to fill the silence with a one-sided conversation. She wanted Tobi—she wanted Obito’s silly charade to cheer her up, to distract her from the mess in her mind. After they reached the rendezvous point, she chucked a large rock into the sea and took pleasure in the loud splash that signaled it had connected with the water. Itachi ignored her temper tantrum and she couldn’t thank him enough for letting her be. Obito arrived with no obvious signs of injury. He took one look at Itachi’s sweaty face and the hand she had pressed over her side and clicked his tongue.

“Let’s go.”

“Ao?”

“Dead.” He looked between them again and she knew exactly what he wanted to know. She averted her eyes; the scowl on her face answered about her own failure. He hadn’t expected her to kill Kakashi—he’d been right to doubt her. Still, he asked, as if he meant to make her relive the fight all over again. “And Kakashi?” Kana’s right hand was a fist at her side and he chuckled. Itachi pretended as if he weren’t a part of the conversation, easily recognizing that it had nothing to do with him, at its core. “I’m honestly surprised you came back. I thought I’d have to hunt you down. You made things much easier. Thank you for not wasting my time and energy.” Condescending as he sounded, she managed a sharp nod. Running away was impossible, an escape futile.

“I didn’t want to be an inconvenience,” she replied, tone biting. She saw the corner of his visible eye crinkle, showing that he found her rude response amusing. He led them to a fishing vessel and her stomach churned at the thought of taking a boat back to the mainland. The boat smelled like fish, the netting piled up on the interior for the fishermen to return to their work. Obito had obviously stolen it. She realized that he didn’t want Itachi in kamui. “You don’t trust him.” She waited until Itachi went to start the boat and caught Obito standing near the stern, his eyes on the water in the distance. He made a so-so motion with his right hand, then glanced over his shoulder at Itachi. “You trust me?”

“I don’t trust anyone. It leads to disappointment, at best.”

“You let me go.”

“And I didn’t expect you to come back. It was a nice surprise. You shouldn’t take it personally. Like I said, I don’t trust anyone, and you shouldn’t trust me. It’s a poor decision on your part.”

The constant motion of the boat had her at starboard, leaning over the side of the boat to vomit into the sea. Itachi handled the boat, while Obito paced the length of the vessel, trying to ignore her as she gagged and spit saliva tainted with stomach acid into the water. She groaned, hands grasping the railing until her knuckles turned white. The cool metal railing helped with the pain in her right hand, but her grip was too tight and every movement had her hand throbbing. She felt as if she were one wave away from falling overboard. She wanted Kakashi. She wanted carrot and ginger soup. She was pathetic, and the fact made her laugh, a broken sound that led into more gagging. She heard Obito sigh as he approached her. She didn’t expect him to hold her hair back for her, but he did. By that point, she hadn’t cared about how she looked, but he still tried. His last words reminded her that her trust was misplaced. Their relationship was a business exchange. She wondered if he’d sacrifice her at some point, just like he’d planned on sacrificing Itachi. She’d thought they were getting somewhere, and she wondered why that bothered her so much. Her mind told her they tolerated one another, but she recalled the sound of him moaning her name and she groaned, resting her cheek against the railing.

After a calm period, she straightened up and he released his hold on her hair. He had his back against the railing, so she looked him over. The mask was a nice touch, but she preferred seeing his face. He'd been an expressive kid. She remembered her brother laughing at the fact that he'd made the boy cry and run away. But that was a long time ago. Hajime had always been a bastard. Obito finally acknowledged her staring, so she wrinkled her nose and glared in the opposite direction. She felt his hand on her left hip and her attention shifted to Itachi.

"Relax, I'm not seducing you. You'd know." The comment earned a smile that she hid from him. He slowly removed her cloak, the fabric around the cut sticking to dried blood and pulling at her skin. She hissed and glared at him, but she didn't strike him. "Kakashi did this?" As he asked, he pulled up the side of her shirt to reveal the bleeding wound. The pressure had helped, but he'd disturbed the wound by removing the clothing.

"I broke his sternum, probably a couple of ribs too. I hope." He chuckled, pleased to hear that she'd hurt Kakashi, even if she didn't kill the man. The wound wasn't a clean cut. She knew she would have a scar, a reminder that he'd tried to kill her again. "I'm more worried about the chakra burns. They're a bitch to heal." She should have had her gloves, but she'd disposed of them in Snow, after coming into contact with the poison. "Stitches again, Dr. Uchiha?" He snorted and flicked the wound, so she pinched his forearm until he slapped her ass.

"I could just let you bleed out."

"You'd love that, wouldn't you?"

"I wouldn't complain."

"Fix me." Obito tipped his head to the side, clearly feigning confusion. She took his hands and put them over the wound, so he rubbed a hand over the area. "You're such an annoying little shit. Please fix me," she huffed, the magic word earning her green chakra. She watched the wound slowly close, the whole process leaving the area tingling. It felt nothing like the time he'd fixed her skull. "What can you do about my hand?"

"It has to heal on its own. I can wrap it," he offered, receiving a nod. "I'm going to take a guess and say this is from raikiri." His fingers felt along her burning palm, then he traced the lightning flowers trailing from her wrist to her forearm. He hummed in thought. "He enjoys that jutsu a lot. He used the same one to kill Rin. I wonder if he'd like my fist going through his chest."

His posture and his touch conveyed a calmness that his chakra signature lacked. It was a gradual anger that claimed him, rising like a tide, the embers hot against her senses. He was reminded of Rin, but for an awful reason. Kana didn't know if his anger came from the fact that Kakashi had almost killed her or the echoes of past anger and hatred brought on by memories of Rin. He'd seen her die. Kana didn't need to ask. She was angry, as evidenced by her rough treatment of Kakashi and the mutual dismissal they shared.

Obito had once said that Kakashi deserved to suffer, and she'd argued that the man had changed. He hadn't proven it when he'd tried his assassination technique on her. She fell in love with the wrong person, and she'd been stupid enough to think there would always be a place there for her. She'd been naive. She'd given up everything for him and he'd tried to murder her. They were enemies. If she were someone else, she might have let him kill her. But she wasn't dying in the middle of that forest, a severed head returned to Konoha on a silver platter. They would meet and part until one of them died, and it wasn't going to be her.

"It almost sounds like you care."

"I still need you."

"Yeah."

At least someone does.

Chapter Text

She lowered herself into the tub of steaming water and inhaled the fresh scent of gardenia. Eyes closed, she rested her head back against the tub and sighed, content to let the hot water relax her aching muscles. The journey back to the mainland hadn’t given her much time to process what had happened in the Land of Water, but the hot water enveloping her and the silence in the bathroom amplified the sound of her racing thoughts. Opening her eyes, she stared at the white bandages on her right hand. She was slow to unwind them, and she watched the scars and burnt skin revealed by the act. She would never forget about Kakashi—he’d left his mark on her, one she would carry for the rest of her life. Sighing, she let her arm hang over the side of the tub and nudged her foot against the knob on the faucet, stopping the annoying dripping that grated her nerves. Brushing a stray strand of hair behind her right ear, she adjusted her messy bun, nearly ruining it when someone knocked on the bathroom door. Exhaling through her nose, she closed her eyes and focused on her breathing to combat the first flare of her temper. The only one stupid enough to bother her was Obito, and she didn’t want to talk to anyone. Her hand still throbbed with every move, reminding her of the terrible goodbye she’d shared with Kakashi. Despite multiple attempts at focusing on her hatred, she still loved the stupid bastard. At the thought, she huffed and shook her head.

“I know it’s you. If you have to piss, just get in here.” The water and bubbles hid almost everything, and they’d seen one another naked. She thought he might knock again, which reminded her of their first awkward encounter, but he opened the door and closed it behind him. He didn’t move to the toilet, so she looked up at him. He leaned against the sink and watched her look him over from head to toe. “So you just came to bother me. Fantastic,” she frowned, looking away from him. It was wrong of her to treat him that way, but he let it go.

“Tomorrow afternoon, you and Itachi will be leaving for the Land of Silence.” The way he said it left no room for discussion. Frowning, she sat up straight, bubbles still clinging to her skin. His eyes didn’t stray from her face, which she found amusing, at least. “I have some things I need to take care of. Am I making a mistake by giving you this mission assignment?” She glanced in the direction of the door, but she felt Itachi’s chakra signature in the room he shared with Obito. Obito had likely already given the mission assignment details to Itachi, so she shook her head, indicating that he hadn’t made a mistake.

“So you’re leaving us,” she spoke, contemplating completing a mission without him. She couldn’t imagine being stuck with Itachi for the duration of the journey to Silence. There would be no Tobi to fill the silence, no endless stream of words to keep the crushing guilt from destroying her. Kana licked her lips and tapped the fingers on her left hand against her thigh. “What kind of mission?” The frown on his face told her she wouldn’t like it, so she exhaled a shaky breath. “What kind of fucking mission, Obito?”

“Human trafficking scheme. It spans several nations, but the home base is in the Land of Silence, specifically Curtain Village. We need to identify and eliminate major players in the trade. The daimyo is trying to clean up that side of the black market, but the missing nin exploit it.”

“He’s hiring missing nin to take care of this problem? And what, you expect me to play undercover cop?”

“You could say that. I expect you to be an easy victim and play along.”

“I don’t do honeypot missions,” she scowled, turning her head away from him. She proceeded to ignore him and relax in the water, but he didn’t leave. Every second of silence weighed on the sliver of patience she had left. He closed the lid on the toilet and sat down, so they were closer to eye level. “Make Konan do it. She’s a woman too,” Kana reminded him, shrugging her shoulders. She had a feeling that she wouldn’t win the brewing argument, but she refused to give in and accept a mission that left her feeling degraded. He didn’t lose his temper, which surprised her, so she gave up avoiding his gaze. Even though he didn’t yell at her, he looked completely done with her attitude.

“Konan is retrieving Sasori from the Land of Wind.” Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. He smirked at her expression, clearly understanding that she hadn’t expected him to listen to her. She pursed her lips and crossed her arms over her chest, silently contemplating her options, though she only had the one. “I know this is beneath you, but can you find it in you to be a normal human being for this mission?” She threw a handful of water at him and he laughed. She tried to do it again, but he caught her hand. “I know you’re a veteran of infiltration missions. I know you can do honeypot missions.” He’d clearly seen her records, but she’d accepted that he’d stalked her. He examined her injured hand then, kneeling down to get a better look at the healing skin on her palm. She flicked his nose with her other hand.

“Fine. I prefer assassination missions, for the record,” she said, accepting the mission as her own. She let him trace a finger along the lightning flowers on her wrist and forearm, then he released her hand. “You aren’t going to tell me what it is you have to take care of, are you?” He smirked at her and she rolled her eyes and hit him with bubbles. She tried to get him to change his mind by leaning in to kiss him, but he took the kisses without comment. He pulled the hair tie from her bun and her hair fell into the bath, so she bit his lip and he pinched her side. “Dick,” she huffed, after they’d parted. “Do you want to join me?”

“Not this time. Enjoy your bath, Kana.”

“Your loss.”

Since her hair was already damp, she drained the tub and took a shower to wash her hair. Gardenia wasn’t her scent, but she didn’t mind it, not when the alternative was no soap at all. She missed another presence in the shower. There was a moment when she thought of Kakashi and she punched the shower wall, hurting her right hand. Warm embers drew closer and she stopped the string of curses escaping her mouth. She thought he might knock on the door, but he let himself in and found her holding her bleeding hand out of the shower spray. He arched a brow at her and silently offered her a towel, which she yanked from his grasp. She’d already washed the soap from her hair and body, so her relaxing time was over. Wrapping the towel around herself, she sat down on the edge of the tub and examined the cracked skin along her palm. She hissed as he took her hand. He looked at the smear of blood on the shower wall, but he chose to keep his mouth shut. He cleaned the wound with water, added ointment, and wrapped it, while she stewed in her own anger and embarrassment.

“Maybe you shouldn’t hit inanimate objects,” he helpfully supplied, earning a dirty look from her.

He got to his feet, but she snagged his right hand with her left. He arched a brow at her hold on him, but she kissed him before he had the chance to ask. His free hand went to her hip, but it quickly moved to unwrap her towel, exposing rosy skin to the cool air bleeding in from the bedroom. Their lips met and parted several times as they navigated their way into the bedroom. He looked in the direction of the room’s door, clearly thinking the same thing. He’d meant to share a room with Itachi, not her. She didn’t try to distract him as he made the decision to stay. He started removing his clothes, so she began helping him. She nudged him backwards until he fell onto the bed with a grunt, and he watched her with interest, his lips parted for words he didn’t produce. She wanted someone to hold her. She wanted someone to kiss her and touch her. When she wavered, he sat up and offered a hand to her, which she took, without hesitation. She didn’t want meaningless sex in a rundown hotel in Lightning. All of her life, she’d always made the best of what she had. Right then, she had Obito, a very confused, clearly concerned Obito.

“Kana.” She raised her eyes from the floor to his face, her attention all that he wanted. She was supposed to listen, even if she didn’t want to listen. He knew exactly what he wanted to say, but he wasn’t saying it. What he had to say wasn’t something that she wanted to hear. She knew it by the look on his face, the way his brows furrowed, the way his lips tipped down. “I have nothing to offer you.” She dropped his hand as if she’d been burnt and crossed her arms over her chest, feeling small. She hated feeling small.

“I’m not looking for anything else.”

“Tsuki no Me is my priority.”

“It’s meaningless sex for a reason.”

“Look at me and tell me it’s meaningless sex,” Obito frowned, drawing her attention back to his face. She was a liar. She lied to herself. She lied to the people around her. She was a master manipulator of all things false and deceptive, and she meant to lie to them both with one quick response.

“It’s meaningless sex,” she repeated, nudging his knees apart.

The lie tasted as sweet as freedom on her tongue, but tasted bitter going all the way down. She didn’t know if her words convinced him, but he didn’t stop her when she dropped to her knees; he didn’t stop her when she worked on pleasing him, using her hand, and then her mouth. It was easy to dissociate, to be both there and not. The lie circled around them, buzzing like a fly. Maybe it wasn’t so meaningless after all.

After he came, he didn't stay, not that she expected him to, considering his kind words spoken before they'd even done anything. She tried to pretend that he didn't hurt her with his quick decision to leave; she told herself that it was no different than other times she'd slept with men. And then she decided it was easier to blame Kakashi. He'd ruined her without even trying. She was still scrambling to pick up all the pieces of herself, and there was little hope of ever being whole. That night, for the first time, she dreamt of Kakashi killing her. She woke up with a scream lodged in her throat, her shirt soaked in sweat. Her room was empty, but she still turned the bedside lamp on to search the room. She took another shower that gave her time to space out and recover from the nightmare. His hand had felt so real, and she'd awoken with such violent, jerky movements that she'd sworn she'd been electrocuted.

By morning, Obito was gone, leaving Kana with an eerily silent teenager and bitterness brought on by his easy dismissal. She met Itachi in the lobby, where he nodded in greeting and extended the mission scroll. Obito had given her control of the mission to test her, to see if she could successfully complete a mission without him overseeing her. As simple as the mission seemed, she knew it wasn't cut and dry. Human trafficking was a serious problem in the world, especially in impoverished villages, where the young were easy targets. Traffickers could disappear and reappear in the blink of an eye, making tracking them almost impossible. Killing whole operations was the goal, but localities settled for killing branches, anything to protect their people, and to hell with everyone else. Kana had never tackled a mission like the one given to her. Getting captured was an easy job. The difficult part was dismantling the operation and escaping. It only took one mistake to become a victim. It was risky, but Kana liked taking risks.

"Have you been to the Land of Silence before?" Itachi shook his head, so she tried to think of the best way to describe the nation. There were a lot of trees, a thick forest covering the whole nation, and despite the daimyo's best attempts, the crown jewel was Curtain Village, where missing nin converged to dabble in the black market. "The landscape is nice. There are mostly pine trees there, so everyone travels on designated paths that span the entire nation. Curtain Village used to be the place to go, but it's known for its black market now. Most missing nin have been there at least once."

"Have you ever been assigned a mission like this one?"

"No. I'm great with infiltration, but honeypot missions are different. A kunoichi's body is her weapon. It takes a certain kind of girl to handle honeypot missions, and I'm not that kind of girl."

He accepted her response and let that end the conversation. They had two weeks until they reached the Land of Silence, and the mission time frame was open, so they had no deadline. He wasn't an annoying kid, definitely not a spoiled brat, so he proved her assumptions incorrect. He had a haunted look in his eyes, and she recognized it instantly. He was too young to have gone through so much, but the only thing uncommon about his upbringing is the fact that he aided in the slaughter of their clan. She didn't understand what led him to that decision. She was missing pieces of the puzzle. But in the end, it wasn't her puzzle to solve. His reasons were his reasons. Obito’s decision not to trust Itachi weighed on her, making her wonder if she could trust her temporary partner. They needed to keep in contact during the mission, because he was her only contact outside of the trafficking ring. He was the key to getting her out of there. It was easy to go from predator to prey.

"I should thank you for saving my life."

"Why are you here, Itachi?"

"Why are you here, Kana?"

"I'm an idiot," she shrugged. "A peaceful world sounds promising. Maybe that's keeping me here. Maybe it's the fact that I don't have anywhere else to go. I might as well see this thing to the end. I spent a lot of time thinking about running away, dreaming about running away, but here I am." She folded her arms behind her head as they walked. He accepted her explanation, even if her reasoning was paper thin. She'd joined and stayed for Kakashi, but it didn't matter anymore. She was under no obligation to protect him.

"I'd like for peace to be possible. I removed the burden of my clan and there isn't a place for me in the world, so why not here? I suppose I'm an idiot as well." Itachi glanced over at her and she saw nothing but sincerity. He truly believed he had no other place in the world. She wondered if he'd dreamt of returning to Konoha, or if all-consuming regret crippled him at night. "I'll follow this road, wherever it leads, because it's better than standing still."

"At least we're all outcasts."

"There is that, yes."

Chapter Text

Curtain Village was a large village. At one point, it had been the prototype of a hidden village for the Land of Silence, but the Third War led to an efflux of valuable shinobi, leaving deserters behind. The deserters attracted missing nin, and the black market was born several years after that. In terms of age, the black market in Curtain was young, but it had exploded, the faraway nation the perfect spot for those looking to escape the law. The daimyo, Uehara Enji, had tried to prevent the formation, but he’d been forced to accept the black market, flee, or die; he refused to give up his title of daimyo, so the black market stayed. Kana had been to the village to recover a missing nin from Kumogakure. The black market was known to have a wide variety of poisons, some of which were outlawed for use in combat and war. She’d been fascinated by nerve agents outlawed in the Second War. As a missing nin, she was under no obligation to play by the rules; however, nerve agents were easily turned against the user, without proper protection.

As they passed through the southern entrance of the village, she inhaled the heavy scent of tobacco and patchouli lingering in the air and wrinkled her nose. Even though it didn’t help, she waved a hand in front of her face to try and chase the stench away. Beside her, Itachi looked at the mishmash of buildings comprising the main drag. The village had gone downhill since her last visit. The buildings were rundown, the faces missing chunks, some of the windows cracked and broken. She highly doubted the daimyo funded the mission, but the origins of the money didn’t concern her. It was just as likely that neighboring lands had come together to take care of the mess. She thought that the grim surroundings would irk Itachi, but he showed no reaction. Their cloaks and clean appearance drew the attention of beggars. While Itachi ignored them, Kana kicked one away from her. He’d tried groping her, like a terrible pickpocket. Itachi pointed to the center of the village. The heart of Curtain Village was Fushu Castle, where the aging daimyo resided. When a man tried to jump Itachi from the right, Kana drew her wakizashi and chopped off the man’s arm. The other three with him turned and ran, leaving him to scream and scramble to stop the bleeding.

“You’re supposed to be enticing. No one will abduct you if you keep this up,” Itachi commented, the words causing her to laugh. She patted his right cheek, then she sheathed her blade. Soon, she would hand over her weapons and play the innocent traveler, and he just had to remind her of the fact. Curtain was the perfect playground for missing nin, and she had to admit she appreciated it more.

“Send word to the daimyo. I’m going to start looking like a tourist.” Itachi took her blade and her kunai pouch, placing them on himself, then she disappeared into a clothing store to see what they had for civilian apparel. She saw him through the front window as he released a crow, then he remained outside of the store, trying to limit their time seen together.

The shop owner was a man, not that she was surprised. He watched her as she moved around the shop, likely looking for clues that she meant to shoplift. For a change, she actually had money, so his constant staring was insulting. She looked up from a display of shirts and caught his eye, so he quickly looked away. Even when she tried appearing normal, she still startled him. Sighing, she went to the exit and stepped out of the shop. Itachi looked at her in question, so she removed her cloak, revealing her black romper. She folded the cloak and handed it to him, then they moved to the next shop. They bypassed buildings touting shinobi gear, since she didn’t want to look like a shinobi. The regular clothing stores in Curtain were limited, and feminine clothing was almost nonexistent. Attention wasn’t good. She found black shorts that showed off her legs and a sleeveless grey shirt, and everything else covered too much of her. She’d been hoping for a dress. As she emerged from the shop, she frowned and held her arms out, presenting her new attire to Itachi. The teen adopted a thoughtful expression, then he nodded.

“I’ll keep you in sight,” he reassured her. After a moment’s hesitation, she handed her shopping bag off to him, and he put her cloak inside with her romper. She gave him a fake salute, turned, and started acting like a lost tourist. The closer she went to the castle, the more likely someone would think she had some influence, so she headed toward the heart of Curtain, and she felt Itachi slowly trailing after her.

She pulled her hair up into a ponytail as she walked, securing it with a hair tie she’d had around her wrist. At first, no one seemed to notice her, but she slowed her pace and began to windowshop and speak with workers standing outside or working at stalls. Instead of a tourist, she tried to appear as if she lived there and knew people. Her connections would make absolutely no difference to traffickers. If they wanted her, they would take her. After an hour of wandering around, remaining close to the towering castle, she took a seat on a bench, crossed one leg over the other, and considered other options for attracting attention. She had money, so she could try to approach one of the missing nin looking for clients. She recognized a lot of the shinobi from their bingo book pages, so she also had to worry about her own infamy. She felt for Itachi’s chakra to distract herself, so she didn’t notice when someone sat down beside her. A pack of cigarettes was offered to her, so she turned to see the man to her left. He had a nice smirk, and his hitai-ate identified him as a former shinobi of Kirigakure. His teeth weren’t sharpened to points, not that it was a surprise. Not every shinobi from Kirigakure preferred looking like a piranha. She didn’t smoke, so she shook her head.

“I don’t smoke,” she added, watching him pull the pack of cigarettes back and tuck them into his right front pocket. “So you’re a missing nin.” He chuckled at her choice of words and she huffed, resisting the urge to say something snarky. He toyed with a lock of her hair and she pulled away from him. He was a handsome man, with dark hair pulled back into a ponytail and a well-kept beard. He wasn’t what she was looking for, but he could prove useful, so she remained seated.

“I am. You’re in a village full of them,” he smiled, motioning to the rest of the village. She remained passive, letting his chakra wash over her before she analyzed it. He reeked of yin release, so she gathered he liked mind games, and she was proven correct when he asked her about herself and she felt his chakra try to access her network. He was sly, very subtle with his approach, and it became clear that it was auditory. He was gifted. With more practice, he would easily charm people by the dozens.

“My name is Akemi. I’m visiting the daimyo today. My appointment isn’t for another hour, so I thought I would look around and wait,” she lied, shrugging her shoulders. His eyes went to her right hand, so she lifted it. “I was attacked on the way here.”

He frowned, as if he actually cared, then his eyes traveled to her bare legs and she wondered if he showed interest as a man or as a procurer. He played off being caught by ducking his head and looking away. When he tried his auditory trick a second time, she wanted to sigh, but she decided to let him proceed. Missing the mark twice was too much. He was learning—he wasn’t incompetent. He was subtly encouraging her to reveal more about herself as he inched his way closer. His arm was put around her shoulders. Vaguely, she heard him tell her that his name was Gengo. She didn’t recognize the name, but there had been a large number of missing nin fleeing Kirigakure since the Third War. She caught sight of a black cloak with red clouds and she prayed that she could trust Itachi to tail them, because he presented her with a pretty flower that she knew would make her more susceptible to his genjutsu. Rather than completely fall for it, she used her mangekyou to give him the illusion that she had and he proceeded to help her to her feet.

“My meeting with the daimyo,” she reminded him, her mind going between fog and absolute clarity. She toed the line with his genjutsu, torn between succumbing to it or breaking it.

He looked back at the daimyo’s castle, then he offered her a charming smile. Itachi nodded at her from a distance, so she closed her eyes and let the genjutsu take over her system. She remembered little about what happened between that bench near Fushu Castle and the basement where he left her. She thought they’d taken three turns, but it may have been two, and she swore they were in the residential district, but there were several of those throughout the village. She did remember how the building looked. It looked old, the face crumbling, just like other buildings in the village. The window on the top floor was broken, and a bird had set up a nest in the outer corner, allowing easy access to and from the building. It was a robin. She recalled that much. The coloring had been vibrant, in the light of day. And then she found herself in a musty basement with seven other females. She wasn’t the oldest one there, and there were three of them that were young girls. Kana wondered how many men were collecting women and where the basement stood along their map. The genjutsu took too long to wear off, and when it did, it left her with a dry mouth and a headache. From where she sat, on the cold, stone floor, she couldn’t find Itachi’s chakra signature, but there was something interfering with her senses. She had to wonder if the mere presence of pollen from that flower had some affect on her.

The four other women and three girls were unusually quiet, showing that they were likely still under the genjutsu. Where she had the option to resist, they obviously didn’t. One young girl showed signs of being a kunoichi, but she was likely an academy student or a fresh genin, since she hadn’t broken free of the genjutsu. Kana tried standing, but she nearly fell, so she settled for crawling, even though her hand burned as she put weight onto it. She disrupted the chakra of the seven and sat back to watch the show unfold. The oldest woman started screaming, and her hysterics only fueled five others. The young kunoichi looked almost lifeless in the way she surveyed the basement and accepted her reality. Kana knew that the girl had been relocated, but she suspected that the girl had been moved more than once. There was a level of detachment that spoke of changing surroundings. The screaming drew two armed men down the basement steps, both of them armed with kunai. The two girls began to weep, while the oldest woman screamed louder. She’d likely been from a place without shinobi. Kana wasn’t surprised when they slit the woman’s throat and tossed her body into the far corner. There was blood on the floor that spoke of similar incidents.

The next person to visit them was a medic with long white hair and hazel eyes. He checked them over for injuries, going from one to the next, until he saw Kana’s bandaged hand. The healing had progressed well. The skin wasn’t cracked anymore, though it was still sore. She hadn’t had a certified medic look at it before, but the man hummed and began working. He was able to expand on the healing taking place, since she had fresh skin. There were scars on her palm that would never heal, and though he was able to reduce the harsh look of the lightning flowers, they were also lifelong scars. He healed her to the point that she would no longer need the bandages. When the two men from earlier descended the stairs, the medic stepped aside to discuss her case, so she eavesdropped.

“Lightning jutsu. She wasn’t the user. It’s a defensive wound. It fits with the story that she was attacked. I would say close range—she’s lucky to be alive. I’ve done all I can do.”

“She’s damaged goods.”

“It’s a surface feature. Where they’re going, they don’t care about surface features.”

Kana hated that they called her damaged goods, but she couldn’t disagree with them. Kakashi made her damaged goods. She held up her right hand to admire the skin and flexed her fist. Eventually, the pain would entirely recede, and she wouldn’t need a medic to dull the pain. One of the men approached her, and she decided that they needed names. She would call the first man, a pudgy man with salt-and-pepper hair, Gota; she would call the second man, a wiry man with a scar at the corner of his right eye, Ippei. Gota grabbed her right forearm and inspected the damage, since he’d been the one to call her damaged goods. He glanced over his shoulder at Ippei and the man shrugged.

“Strip.” At the word, the other women and girls began to cry, while that little kunoichi pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her face in them. Kana hesitated, so he grabbed her by her ponytail and dragged her to her feet. She wanted to spit in his face, but she reminded herself that she needed to follow the crumbs until she found someone with more authority. “I said strip.” He glanced at Ippei again. “She’s locally sourced. They don’t care about surface features, but if she has something under these clothes, then that’s one less body and that means less money. You try explaining to Gengo why he can’t buy any more fancy jackets. The spoiled prick.”

Kana wondered if she’d met someone important when she’d met Gengo, but he’d seemed like an ordinary procurer, not someone higher up. To avoid a fistfight that she would ultimately win, she pulled her sleeveless shirt off, revealing her sports bra. He inspected her for scars, but she had less scars than any ordinary kunoichi. The scar on her side was the worst, and his hands found it. The flesh wasn’t raised, and Obito had healed it enough that it was merely pale skin against her complexion. But it was a scar, and Gota liked his goods in pristine condition. He didn’t say anything, so she removed her shorts, leaving her in her sports bra and panties. He had her turn in a small circle, and she’d never been more humiliated in her life.

“See? Surface features,” Ippei proudly declared, clearly loving being right. Gota scoffed and nudged Kana’s clothes at her feet, leaving her to retrieve them and dress herself. When they left, Gota looked back at her before he slammed the basement door shut. She flipped him off.

“I just want to go home,” one girl announced in a wobbly voice, her eyes red from hours of crying. The girl next to her hugged her close and the two resumed crying. The kunoichi didn’t lift her head. The three women had grown as silent as the kunoichi, though one of them kept looking at Kana.

“Nobody’s going home, stupid. We’re stuck here. This is it,” the kunoichi spoke, clearly tired of the endless crying. Kana blinked a few times, surprised by the girl’s angry outburst. “We’ll be gone before the night’s out. That’s what they do. They collect people and move, over and over. Some come, and some leave. Just be glad we aren’t that lady in the corner,” the girl said, pointing at the corpse. The two girls cried fresh tears and even Kana felt bad for them. She couldn’t imagine being abducted at such a young age. That made the whole thing worse.

“Are you a kunoichi?” Kana risked a lot by asking, but the girl raised her head and their eyes met. Kana had never seen such a pretty shade of olive green. “You are, aren’t you? You carry yourself differently,” Kana said, their conversation heard by everyone in the room. The girl sniffed, as if the cold, dank basement bothered her allergies, and maybe it did. “I’m Akemi.”

“I was. Barely.” The girl stretched her legs out in front of her and Kana saw the bruises on her knees. Surface features. The thought made Kana sick. “I’m Yuka. I’m from Hoshigakure.” The girl was a long way from home. Kana had underestimated the scope of the trafficking ring. "Are you a kunoichi?" She didn't know Yuka, but she knew the girl could be the type to trade information for a better position. Girls in human trafficking tried rising through the ranks. Kana shook her head and the girl deflated.

"It won't always be this way," Kana promised, already making the decision to save as many of them as possible. The other two girls liked hearing those words, but Yuka looked as if she'd tasted something sour. "It feels that way right now, but it's true."

Kana recognized the lost hope in the silence she received as a response. She counted the four people she knew: She had the medic, Gota, Ippei, and Gengo. She needed more names, preferably before they moved locations, but it seemed highly unlikely. She relaxed when she felt the calm from Itachi's chakra signature. Minutes later, the basement door slammed open and Gota stomped down the stairs. He eyed everyone present, the girls huddling together, the women drawing away from him. Kana moved closer to Yuka and took the girl's hand in her own. If Yuka minded, she didn't show it. Gota hadn't shown interest in any of them, but Kana recalled how horrible she'd felt removing her clothes for him. She comforted herself by imagining the creative ways she would kill him.

"One of you is a sensor," he accused, frowning. Kana felt her heart stop. His eyes went right to Yuka. There was nothing she could do if he wanted to hurt her. She had a mission that took priority. And in the end, even though she saw a little of herself in that girl, she wouldn't jeopardize everything to save her. Yuka squeezed Kana's hand, the only comfort she could provide. He grabbed Yuka by her right arm and tried dragging her to her feet, but she clung to Kana.

"It was her!" If hell existed, Kana knew that she would burn for all eternity. The woman that she pointed at burst into tears and denied the whole thing. Gota released his hold on Yuka so suddenly that the girl fell to the ground. Kana caught her head before it connected with the cold concrete. "She's a sensor from Haze." Gota didn't seem like the type to collect the women, but she still took a risk by lying. Haze was nearby, a day's travel away. He looked for something in her eyes, but she didn't bend to him.

"You. Let's go. Sensors fetch a hefty price." Gota snapped his fingers, but the woman didn't move. He had to drag her up the stairs by her arms, and she kicked and screamed the whole time. When the door slammed shut behind them, Kana released a breath she'd been holding and everyone but Yuka stared at her.

"She was from the Land of Woods," one woman spoke, her voice soft, as delicate as she looked. Kana felt guilt stir in her gut, but she refused to regret her decision. She reminded herself of the mission and made a note not to use any chakra to sense her surroundings. "You lied," the woman continued.

"Did you want him to take you?"

"Well, no, but I," the woman struggled, words lost. Kana thought it was cute that the woman wanted to be a better person. Kana wasn't being sold like a fine pig. The woman should have been grateful. "I wouldn't have," the woman tried again.

"You would have let them take you? Be glad it wasn't you. It wasn't any of you."

Kana's words had them all looking away. The two remaining women moved closer together, and everyone but Yuka drew away from her. She couldn't blame them. While she'd proven herself to Yuka, she'd proven to everyone else that she was untrustworthy. Despite her best intentions and her desire to save them, if surviving and completing her mission truly called for it, she would sacrifice every one of them, regret be damned. When the door opened again, Ippei descended the stairs, followed by Gengo. Gengo took a look at the frightened women, then took in the girls clinging to one another. The two exchanged whispered words that Kana barely deciphered. They were being moved. Yuka had been right. She heard the name Motoki, followed by the names Kirisaki and En. None of the names meant anything to her. The Coliseum was mentioned more than once, but she’d never heard of such a place. The woman she’d sacrificed was being sold to one of the patrons. She wondered what the hell she’d gotten herself into. When they finally moved, they were placed under a genjutsu and shuffled through tunnels linking homes in the village. Another basement greeted her.

Chapter Text

“Where are you from?”

“Amegakure.”

“Wow. That’s pretty far away.”

“So is Hoshigakure.”

Her eyes had grown accustomed to the darkness. As she sat crisscross on the cold concrete, she toyed with her hair, brushing her fingers through her ponytail, chasing knots that weren’t there. She’d grown accustomed to sensing chakra signatures; without her sensing skills, she felt as if she’d lost her five senses altogether. She felt cut off from the world. The two girls had progressed to play rock, paper, scissors to fill the time, but they’d fallen asleep almost two hours ago, leaving a tired Kana and Yuka to converse. The two women had been asleep since before their third move. Gota and Ippei had been forced to drag them, and neither of them had appreciated the extra work. The basement they inhabited had water leaking from one of the cracks in the wall that ran from the ceiling, past a window, and to the floor. The window was painted black to prevent people from looking into the window, but she heard the rain hitting the glass. The rainwater only added to the musty smell. The place had spiders that skittered across the floor. She stomped on one that dared to get too close to her. She hated spiders.

Her hands and knees were dirty, her legs smudged with dried mud from where they’d been forced to crawl through the last tunnel. It had partially collapsed, and she remembered one of the little girls cutting her palm open on a jagged rock. The medic, Kirisaki, had made another appearance to treat the wound, leaving a tiny scar behind that annoyed Gota. Ippei was the more reasonable one, out of the two. Just as Kana was starting to doze off, the medic made another appearance and began administering shots. Kana was the last to receive her shot, and it made her lethargic, perfect for their final move. They emerged in a large chamber, where people had assembled to view them. Wherever they were, the building was large enough to allow a crowd. There was constant foot traffic up and down the stairs, and music was heard every time the basement door opened. Most of the inhabitants were missing nin, but she noticed quite a few wealthy people among them, those people seated in a semi-circle in front of the crowd, making where the girls and women stood the proverbial center stage.

“I hate this part,” Yuka mumbled, keeping her head down. Kana frowned and looked around at the men staring at them as they talked amongst themselves. “Don’t look at them,” Yuka whispered, tugging on Kana’s arm. Against her better judgement, Kana lowered her head too. The girls went first, both of them bid on by one of the wealthy men, a short, fat man with a handlebar mustache. She refused to see them dragged away, even if they were calm enough together. “Civilian girls always go first. Sometimes they don’t come back.” The words left Kana feeling sick again. “Motoki always comes at the end and sets the timer. We’re bought by the hour. We only see Motoki at auction.” She remembered hearing that name. Yuka risked a glance at her and she saw darkness in the girl’s eyes.

“Does he take women?”

“You don’t want him to take you.”

Kana accidentally made eye contact with a man with taupe-colored hair, a mustache, and a goatee. The glasses he wore were odd, the most unusual she’d ever seen. They were diamond shaped and tinted, disguising the color of his eyes. He leaned to his right and whispered to a muscular man, then he nudged his chin in her direction. Yuka hissed her name, so she lowered her eyes, focusing on his shoes rather than his face. Yuka was taken before her, and while she wanted to spare the girl, she had to let her go. When Motoki arrived, he arrived as if he were dressed for a fancy party. He had a bowtie that made his bald head look small in comparison. Kana thought she might be the last one standing, so she was surprised when the odd man motioned her forward. Motoki nudged her back and she stumbled forward two steps before approaching her possible buyer. He took her chin in his hand and turned her head to either side. He smiled at her and he passed a small pouch to the man to his right, who finished the exchange. She glanced over her shoulder at Motoki as she followed the stranger from the room, helped along by the occasional shove to her back by the man’s bodyguard.

She heard cheers as the clock was set, then she was on the first floor of the home, where heavy music tried masking the occasional scream. The bodyguard stopped outside of a second-floor room, after he made sure that she entered the room with her buyer. He removed his diamond-shaped sunglasses to reveal his violet eyes, then he took a seat in the room’s lone chair and motioned for her to turn around in a circle.

“I haven’t seen features like yours in a long time. They didn’t even realize what they had their hands on with you, did they? Pity.”

“Features like mine?”

“So you want to play coy. I typically stick to children, but I can’t pass up a good opportunity. I collect people like you, Akemi, people with kekkei genkai. So I wonder if your pretty eyes have the sharingan.”

“And if they don’t?”

“If they don’t, I can always breed you. But if they do, you’ll make me rich. I’ll take you to the Coliseum and make a fortune. Have you heard of the Coliseum?” She hadn’t heard of the place, but she refused to tell him the truth; regardless, he took her silence as confusion. “It started with the kekkei genkai purge in Kirigakure. Where did all of the survivors go? The Coliseum. People pay to see them fight, and the winner gets the spoils.” Her mission had been to resolve the issue with human trafficking, but she’d stumbled onto something much bigger. She bit her lip as she tried to decide whether the lead was worth getting temporarily sidetracked. He offered her a chance to break onto the scene and dismantle the operation from the inside, but it wasn’t part of her mission. “They didn’t even know you were a shinobi. Leave it to common bandits to miss the obvious.”

“I’m not interested,” she frowned, desperately missing her ability to sense his chakra and decipher his abilities. His eyes were odd, but she didn’t know what the color meant, if it meant anything at all. He smiled at her words, thinking she had no choice in the matter. He surprised her by getting to his feet. She thought he might try hitting her, but he walked right by her and opened the door.

“Akemi, this is my associate, Teruki. I have her for an hour. Have fun.”

The man didn’t look back as he walked out of the room. The bodyguard smirked at her and closed them into the room, so she eyed him from head to toe, analyzing his posture and his muscular build. He had strength she lacked, but she thought she had speed in her favor. She doubted he was a shinobi, but he likely had at least a decent understanding of swords, thanks to the tanto on his back. She motioned him forward and he approached her. Her sharingan activated and she caught him with her mangekyou. Some people fought against her technique, but he succumbed easily enough. She asked about his employer, En, then about the human trafficking ring, but he knew very little. He claimed Motoki was in charge. He didn’t know anyone above Motoki. And he knew nothing about the location of the Coliseum. She’d exhausted her resources when it came to him. She tore her shirt over her sports bra and the bottom hem of the right leg of her shorts, making herself look like she’d had a scuffle and struggled against Teruki, then she knocked him unconscious, took off his clothes, and dragged him into the bed.

The window in the room was boarded up, but she still tried prying the wood from over the window. She could punch through it, but it meant making a lot of noise, which defeated the purpose of sneaking around. Deciding to take the risk, Kana opened the door a little and looked into the hallway. En wasn’t in sight, so she slipped out of the room and continued along the upstairs hallway. She heard a little girl screaming and she took a deep breath and bypassed the door. Her target was Motoki, the one leading the branch in Curtain. Against her better judgement, she circled back for the screaming girl. She knocked twice on the door and the screaming turned to sobbing. She heard a man laugh, then he opened the door to complain, but she punched him in the throat, sending him stumbling backwards. He tried to yell, so she caught him with her mangekyou and didn’t relent until blood ran from his eyes and his nose. When he collapsed on the floor, the girl screamed louder. Kana had to trap her in a genjutsu to get her to stop. One by one, she retrieved the women and girls from the upstairs rooms.

When she finally reached Yuka, she saw a man over her and she released killing intent that had him gasping for air. She grabbed him by the waist of his pants and threw him into the wall, where he bounced and fell to the floor. Yuka scrambled off of the bed, but Kana wasn’t finished. She beat the man to death. She straddled him and punched him repeatedly, not stopping until Yuka softly said her name. Kana glanced back at the girl, then looked down at the bloody pulp she’d made of the man’s face. What he’d intended to do was unforgivable. She considered it a mercy killing, something he didn’t deserve. After they’d crept downstairs, she let the captured slip out the front door. She flared her chakra twice and she felt Itachi’s calm chakra flare in response. She let him in the front door. She heard a gasp come from upstairs, followed by doors slamming open, so she led Itachi to the basement, where they encountered the mass of people bidding on another group of women. While Kana let Itachi take care of Motoki, she blocked off the basement stairs and began slaughtering the rest of the inhabitants. When she found En, she encountered an opponent she couldn’t quickly defeat, and he was joined by Kirisaki, the medic.

Kirisaki fought using chakra scalpels, and she learned the hard way not to get too close to him. When En revealed his eyes to her, her blood ran cold. Any thought she’d had of fighting them with taijutsu alone vanished. She whistled to get Itachi’s attention and he tossed her the wakizashi he’d kept for her. She unsheathed the blade and used both the blade and sheath in combat. When she had Kirisaki down, En interrupted her before she could land the finishing blow, which allowed Kirisaki to escape. She found herself staring into En’s eyes, her mangekyou sharingan meeting his ketsuryūgan. Their genjutsu met, both of them blindsided by the power behind them, but his eyes paled in comparison to her mangekyou, or maybe she was just lucky. She avoided any of his attempts to hit her, knowing to avoid physical contact. He fought with his own blood when she struck him. Itachi had to help her take him down, but they didn’t get to finish their fight. In one last-ditch effort to win the fight, Motoki set fire to the chairs and it quickly spread throughout the basement.

“I’ll be seeing you,” En reminded her as they both scattered to leave.

The threat of the Coliseum loomed over her. Kana found a window that wasn’t boarded up and smashed the painted glass. Itachi gave her the boost she needed so she could slither out to the street, then she grabbed his arms and pulled him from the building. They sat on the street for a moment, both of them breathing hard. Itachi had a hand pressed over his chest, while she cradled a rib she hoped wasn’t broken. Her forearms had defensive wounds from Kirisaki’s scalpels, and they all burned in the steady rain soaking them. Together, they retraced their footsteps and eliminated the other members of the branch, setting those homes ablaze. Yuka accompanied them, the girl eager to see the homes burn to the ground. When the last house was ablaze, Kana gave Yuka money to get home and handed over her kunai pouch, giving the girl some way of protecting herself, if she couldn’t afford travel.

“What happened there?” Kana thought back to the things she’d seen in those bedrooms and her stomach churned at the horrible images. She’d been unable to save one of the young girls from her own group. The man had done unspeakable things, things that would haunt Kana for the rest of her life. Instead of answering, she just shook her head. “This branch is fed by another branch in the Land of Haze,” Itachi informed her, likely obtaining the information from Motoki.

“Then we’re going to Haze. On the way, I can tell you about the Coliseum, my new personal mission.” He offered her the shopping bag he still had and she went into a deserted alley to change, leaving him to watch her back. When she emerged, she felt like a new person. She wanted a shower though, as if the water would wash away everything she’d seen. “Are you alright with this detour?” She hadn’t asked. Their mission was complete. They only had to visit the daimyo to receive the remainder of their payment. They were under no obligation to continue gutting the trafficking ring. Instead of speaking, Itachi nodded. The fact that they hadn’t eliminated Gengo weighed on her. Something told her they would meet again, the same feeling that promised her another meeting with En. The black market lived on.

Chapter Text

November brought fall to the world, and the leaves of the northern village of Hanagawa changed colors around her, bright green becoming red, orange, and yellow, just before they turned brown. Her partner for the mission was unusually late, but she wasn't surprised. Kakuzu frequently voiced his displeasure with his partner's disrespectful behavior. Kana didn't complain about the simpleton because while he was constantly wasting her time, he did his job well. And the time she lost waiting for Shiburo was spent on other things, like the gyoza occupying the bento perched on her lap. He typically arrived within an hour, so when Shiburo didn't show up within the time frame, she finished the last of her gyoza, chucked the plastic container into the trash, and considered her options. Her summons could get a message to anyone she needed to contact, but it took time, and she'd hoped to complete the mission and enjoy the upcoming festival. Shiburo went along with what she said, despite the fact that he constantly tested Kakuzu.

She had another mission lined up with Sasori in the upcoming weeks. She tolerated Shiburo, passivity being the key to their relationship, but she genuinely enjoyed time spent with Sasori. He was extremely intelligent and even though he wasn't well known for his patience, his passions served as exceptions. He was passionate about every part of his art, and he didn't mind conversing about the intricacies of puppetry and poisons. He made her think that she'd sorely underestimated the puppet brigade of the past, even if he claimed the others were mediocre at best. When she felt warm embers near the village entrance, she got to her feet and met him halfway. He wore his Tobi mask, so he greeted her by waving and calling out her name. He jogged toward her, tripped over his own two feet, and crashed into a group of young girls. The girls screeched and ran away, while Tobi remained on the ground for several minutes.

"He finally killed him, didn't he? You owe me fifty ryo. I told you to pair him with someone else. I volunteered to go on that last mission. But no." Kana stood there and let Tobi get to his feet and brush dirt and leaves from his cloak. He looked up at her as he brushed off his cloak and she saw his narrowed eye. She'd hit a nerve. He wasn't in the mood for her attitude. "So you're working with me?"

"Tobi loves working with Kana-chan!"

"It's nothing exciting, I'm afraid. We're investigating some disappearances in the mountain pass."

"Disappearances?"

Kana took the mission scroll from her kunai pouch and handed it over. He hadn't been the one to assign the mission, so she wasn't surprised that he didn't know the details. Seven boys had gone missing, all of them between the ages of nine and fourteen. Hanagawa was a decent village, in terms of size, but they didn't have shinobi or warriors, no sort of protection for their people. Hanagawa was in a valley so the people relied on the mountains to provide protection. Most of the time, the remoteness worked in their favor. Not when it came to disappearances. Hanagawa was the largest village in the Land of Flowers, and while the daimyo had an agreement with Iwagakure, the man didn't want to deal with Iwagakure shinobi. With no other option, the man had reached out to Akatsuki for assistance. Kana had volunteered for the mission, since she'd wanted something simple. She expected a quick resolution and some time at the village's fire festival. If Obito decided to play along, she could actually enjoy herself for the first time in months. And hopefully they wouldn't have to discuss the exchange they'd had before the mission in Curtain Village.

"I hate to say it, but it could be traffickers again. Hanagawa is isolated and the boys were relatively young. The fourteen-year-old boy was with the nine year old, so I'd guess that he was taken instead of being killed. Or maybe his body was dumped somewhere," Kana shrugged, tucking some hair behind her right ear. Tobi handed her the scroll and she tucked it back into her kunai pouch. "There's a festival in two days. I was hoping I could enjoy it," she trailed off, waiting for him to shoot down her plans. Shiburo would have gone and had a great time.

"What kind of festival?"

"A fire festival. Farmers in the Land of Flowers use prescribed burns in winter but since this northern village sees heavy snow, they celebrate early. It seems like it could be fun."

"Well, I don't know, Kana-chan. Maybe we should hurry up and get back!"

"Loser." His sharingan flared to life, even as he deflated. She clicked her tongue. Shrugging her shoulders, she motioned to the sleepy village, where people were already setting up for the festival. "Do you always do what you're told? I think we should fuck off for a day or two. Don't you like to have fun? What's more fun than torches and a bonfire?" She knew it was Obito who sighed, likely exhausted from the mess with Kakuzu and Shiburo. She couldn't imagine how Pein handled the news.

"One day," Obito mumbled, holding up one finger. Kana smirked and touched her index finger to his, a show that she accepted the deal. And then he was Tobi again, eager to explore the village, leaving her to trail behind him.

Hanagawa reminded her a lot of Yumegakure. The buildings were constructed in the old style, so the whole village looked traditional in appearance. As a kid, she'd dreamt a lot about traveling, but simply for the sake of traveling. Being a shinobi allowed her a taste of that lifestyle. And being a missing nin allowed her to lose herself sometimes. As she watched Tobi haggle for two scoops of plum ice cream, she wondered if she felt happier. None of her feelings for Kakashi had been resolved, but it felt that way. He'd hurt her in a way she wasn't sure she could ever forgive, and with the scars, she'd never forget. She had the choice to leave. He'd freed her of her unspoken obligation to protect him. She didn't know if she could escape Obito, but she still had the choice. And she'd stayed. Like Itachi, she found that moving forward was much better than standing still.

How she felt about Obito was complicated. That day in Lightning, he'd blindsided her. He'd made her feel completely insignificant, even though he expected her to help him achieve Tsuki no Me. She was good enough to fuck, but not good enough to stay, and that was how most men viewed her. And so she'd viewed men the same way. Kakashi stayed. Even though she'd pushed him away and pretended distance still existed between them, he'd stayed. She didn't know if she had genuine feelings for Obito; it was just as plausible that she sought comfort with her captor, and that scared her. The thought had her questioning her own sanity. He could be moody, obsessive, aggressive, and those qualities were red flags. She saw slivers of better parts and they drew her in to fall victim to the wildfire that was him. How could she avoid it if she'd already fallen victim to it?

"Kana-chan! I got you a scoop too!" He had two cups, one scoop of plum ice cream in each, and two small spoons. He jogged over to her, careful not to trip and fall. When he presented her with a cup, she hummed and accepted it without thanks. "Mmm! Ice cream," Tobi cheered, happy to move his mask enough to feed himself the cold dessert. She studied his profile as he ate, still thinking about his hot-and-cold approach to life. "Your ice cream is going to melt, Kana-chan," Tobi pointed out, using his tiny spoon to motion to her cup.

"Oh," she replied, looking down at the softening ice cream. The plum ice cream was vanilla with pieces of plum and plum swirl, which tasted delicious. She regretted not having some kind of graham cracker to eat along with her treat.

Obito would help her on her mission and disappear again, leaving her like he left her in that hotel room. She wasn't important enough, and it wasn't her fault. She'd done nothing wrong. But blaming herself was too easy. She'd grown up in a household where she felt small, every fault of hers amplified. Her mother had been too cruel, her father too passive, and for years, she'd blamed herself for all of her perceived shortcomings. Her mother hadn't loved her right because she was unlovable. Her father hadn't defended her because she was worthless. Her brother looked down on her because she was bothersome. It was always her. And it was her again. If she could satisfy him in the way he needed satisfied, he would stay, but she couldn't hand him the world. She couldn't move mountains for him. She was insignificant. Too small again. The ice cream no longer tasted as good, so she passed the remainder to Tobi.

"You look so grumpy, Kana-chan. Maybe I can cheer you up!"

"Mn. I think we should start in the pass. We'll be able to investigate a little before nightfall."

"Then let's go."

He dumped their trash into a trashcan and she took the lead. Unlike him, she'd already been through the pass on the way into the village. There wasn't much to see, just a lot of trees. She summoned two of her mountain lions and they helped in the search. Tobi cooed at them and one nearly bit his left hand off when he tried to pet it. She was disappointed that he hadn't lost the hand.

The trails they managed to find, through disturbed brush, broken branches and twigs, and a scent trail the big cats managed to pick up, led them away from the area. One of her lions brought her a red scarf that had been found wrapped around one of the low-hanging branches. She recognized it as belonging to one of the missing persons. The nine-year-old boy was last seen wearing a red scarf. When the lions circled around a small mound covered in brush, she had a sinking feeling in her gut. Tobi began to move the brush aside, sending colorful leaves fluttering. When they saw a hand, she knew they'd found the fourteen-year-old boy.

Nightfall ruined the rest of the investigation. They didn't have a body scroll, so Tobi carried the body back to the village, where they delivered it to the boy's family. The way they'd found the trail leading off to the west made her think the boys weren't in the Land of Flowers anymore, which complicated the search. She had to make the decision to continue outside of the mission search area or cancel the arrangement. She felt a certain way about traffickers, but she didn't know about the mission pay versus their effort. Tobi was unusually quiet, not that she'd been talkative, in comparison. She recalled the dark spots on the boy's legs, a sign of blood settling. He'd been there for a while.

"I think I'm going to proceed with the mission, but you don't have to stay."

"Are you trying to get rid of me, Kana-chan?"

"You want to travel to the Land of Keys with me?"

"Of course!"

She studied him, trying to find reluctance in his visible eye, but he didn't seem reluctant or opposed to the idea, so she shrugged. They hadn't seen one another in months. Until then, she'd assumed he was avoiding her, and she hadn't pushed to see him again. He'd made it quite clear that he was dedicated to his cause and had nothing to spare. She frowned at the memory, embarrassment returning. He chattered as she led the way to their inn. She'd assumed Shiburo would be her partner, so she'd reserved two rooms. At the front desk, they waited for the desk clerk to return, so she considered canceling the reservation for the second room. Beside her, Tobi lightly tapped out a beat on the desk, entirely oblivious. When the front desk girl returned, Kana still hadn’t decided on the room situation. She wanted a decent night’s sleep. The whole journey to the Land of Flowers had been filled with restless nights. Sleeping on the cold, hard ground wasn’t easy on her back; she wanted to crawl into bed and sleep late into the afternoon, even if she knew they needed an early start if she meant to make the fire festival. Before the desk girl could ask for her name, Kana risked a glance at Tobi. She shouldn’t have been surprised when he altered her plan and forced them into an awkward situation. The desk girl looked between the two of them and the single key in Tobi’s gloved hand.

“Let’s go, Kana-chan!” He took her hand in his and tugged, pulling her away from the front desk. She wondered if he meant to pretend that day in Lightning never happened. She could follow his lead. "Here we go," he announced, stopping outside of their assigned room.

The bed was a platform bed, and though it wasn’t as large as she’d hoped, the bed would fit both of them without them encroaching on personal space. The room smelled like the potted pink dahlias on the left bedside table, and she gravitated to them, wanting to touch their delicate petals. Obito closed and locked the door, then he examined the room for himself, his paranoia clearly on display when he searched for any seals. She would have felt the chakra in active seals, but she chose to let him inspect the room. When he deemed the room secure, he removed his mask and ran a hand through his messy hair. She wasted no time removing her cloak and her weapons, careful to leave them within reach. She placed the storage scrolls with her clothes and other necessary items on her bedside table, avoiding disturbing the pink flowers. Any thoughts she had of moving on from that awkward conversation in Lightning disappeared—he ignored her, treating her as if she weren’t really present. He motioned toward their bathroom, so she unpacked her clothing and claimed the first shower, where she drowned out the unsettled atmosphere with hot water and hibiscus.

She felt as if they’d taken several steps back in their relationship, and she blamed him for it. He brushed past her as she exited the bathroom, dressed in her leggings and t-shirt. He had the opportunity to have his own room, and he’d chosen to subject her to his poor mood and behavior. The room was chilly, so she shut the windows and closed the curtains. She turned on the room’s lamp and turned off the overhead light, then she slipped beneath the blankets on her side of the bed and turned her back to Obito’s spot. When he finally climbed into bed, she felt the mattress dip and waited for him to touch her, but he turned his back to her. She told herself she didn’t care, and the thought stayed with her until she dozed off. She thought she would wake up with his arms around her, but his side of the bed was empty and his mask was gone. He punished her for something she didn’t understand. He thought she had feelings for him. She pulled the pillow from beneath her head and pressed it over her face.

Chapter Text

The Land of Keys was a land of rolling hills and tall grass, where the wind made the blades of grass dance. Kana had visited the nation once, but only in passing. She’d found it beautiful, and she felt the same way. Beside her, Tobi took off running and jumped into the tall grass, part of his body consumed by the greenery. She snorted at his behavior, but she still smiled. She’d always wanted to jump into the grass, maybe roll around in it, but she’d been in ANBU at the time, and she’d had to maintain a cool facade. After a moment’s hesitation, she jumped into the tall grass, ducked down, and left Tobi wildly turning around, calling out her name. She tackled him and they both fell into the tall grass and tumbled down a hill, where they landed in a heap at the bottom. She huffed a laugh and she listened to Obito’s soft laughter from behind his mask. When she crawled off of him, she lay in the tall grass and stared up at the cloudy sky. Eventually, the tall grass would give way to grassy hills dotted with giant rocks. The rumor was that there had once been rocky mountains in the region, but the gods shattered them to make room for the nation and grant greenery to its people. Kana didn’t believe the stories, but nothing explained the giant rocks.

Obito straightened his mask, where it had been turned at an awkward angle, then he sat up. Knees bent, he admired the way the grass swayed in the breeze. Kana thought about the trail they’d followed, and how it had disappeared in the Land of Keys. The tall grass concealed too much, and the dirt roads running through the grassy area held no clues. They’d exhausted all of their options, but Kana refused to give up. There were a few villages in the Land of Keys, the largest of which was Jomae Village. The nation wasn’t heavily populated, but they had a bit of land to cover, if they meant to search the entire nation. She had no guarantee that the children were located in the nation, but she meant to complete her search, to know that she had tried everything. Eventually, Kana pushed herself up and got to her feet. Tobi made his infamous reappearance, and they found their way back to the road they’d left. Kana brushed stray grass from her cloak, then she allowed Tobi to lead the journey, since he insisted on marching ahead. She’d missed his stupid persona more than she wanted to admit. As they approached Jomae Village, Tobi stopped and waited for Kana to reach his side. She expected something stupid, but his eye narrowed as he stared at the buildings in the distance. Obito made an appearance, showing that their mission became more complicated.

“Don’t make eye contact with anyone unless you intend to kill the person. They have an ability called Eye Mind Reading, and I don’t want them collecting information from us. They’re renowned for their mastery of espionage.”

“I thought that was a myth.”

“This myth has truth to it. They were pivotal in the second war. They sold information to all of the major villages and they made a lot of money doing it.”

“Alright. No eye contact.”

He nodded, then they proceeded together. The serious mood between them was ruined when he began to hum, but the noise didn’t bother her. She was preoccupied with the thought of the eye mind reading technique and whether or not she could learn something from the village. She wondered if the technique would work on the sharingan, specifically her sharingan. She only needed to kill the people she tested it on, and she had no qualms about doing it. Tobi took her hand and swung their joined hands back and forth, even as she sighed. She’d given up trying to get through to Obito when he was in Tobi mode. It was easier to let the man go.

Jomae was a shinobi village, but it paled in comparison to other shinobi villages; still, Jomae called itself a hidden village. Kana thought the village was nice, although the people weren’t exactly welcoming. She didn’t expect much from a shinobi village, so the thought amused her. The people regarded them with suspicion and whispered conversations, while Tobi happily hummed and swung their joined hands. Considering how ridiculous they looked, they hadn’t earned the suspicion. Akatsuki was slowly gaining notoriety, but Jomae was removed. Then again, the village was known for espionage and likely learned all about Akatsuki’s existence. Kana focused on the chakra signatures around her, picking out shinobi from the people milling about. To expand the area, she focused on chakra signatures around the entire village, releasing small bursts of her chakra, spreading it from her feet as well as through the air. With no knowledge of the boys’ chakra signatures, she only received a general idea of the number of shinobi in Jomae. No chakra responded to her own, but that didn’t mean there weren’t other sensors in the area. She signed the number to Tobi and he bumped her fist, showing that he’d understood but giving the air that he didn’t.

The leader of the village was an older man named Hiromitsu, and he was a difficult man to locate. Kana pinpointed several chakra signatures that were above average, three of which resided in a stone building in the center of the village. They had never seen Hiromitsu in person, so they approached the castle before they searched the rest of the area. Guards stood outside of the entrance. While Kana wanted to demand entry, maybe even ambush them and pull the answers they needed from the men, Tobi decided to walk right up to them and ask them about their day. The three men exchanged a few looks and one hesitantly answered that he was having a good day, while another said he couldn’t complain. Tobi nodded, as if he cared. Tobi was strange. Even though Kana knew it was an act, Obito still surprised her.

“Shinobi-san! We were looking for Hiromitsu-sama! If you could help us, Tobi would be so grateful.”

“Do you have an appointment?”

“Well, no, but we’re on a super secret mission that concerns this village!”

“What he means to say is we have reason to believe some children were smuggled into the village from Hanagawa,” Kana interjected, drawing the attention away from Tobi. As if in agreement, Tobi pointed at her and nodded. The guards didn’t exchange a look, which she found odd. She frowned, her eyes moving from one face to the next. She wondered if their silence meant they knew something, or if her usual paranoia had resurfaced to taint her judgement. “We just have a few questions,” Kana added.

“Get lost. We don’t know anything about missing children.” One guard made a shooing motion with his hands, while the other two snickered at his response. None of them could speak for their leader, but she understood why they filtered visitors. Had she approached a kage in the same manner, she would have been required to have an appointment. Still, their reaction irritated her. Obito’s presence kept her from intimidating them with her killing intent. “You don’t understand what ‘get lost’ means?” Kana wrinkled her nose and Tobi feigned a messy bow. He dragged her away before she could lose her tempter, but she still glared over her shoulder at the snickering shinobi.

“Let’s break in!” Tobi happily exclaimed his suggestion and she stared at him with a blank expression before finally shrugging her shoulders. Tobi led her to the right side of the building, where they stared at the stone wall separating the castle from the rest of the village. He rubbed his hands together, then he backed up a few steps and walked right through the wall, leaving Kana to frown at the spot where he once stood. He’d left her to climb the wall on her own. “Hurry up, Kana-chan!” He poked his head through the wall, so she mirrored his move by backing up several feet. She ran at the wall, jumped up to meet it halfway, and lifted herself up onto the top. After making sure no one had seen her, she dropped to the ground on the other side. “Good job!”

“You’re an insufferable prick, you know that?”

“Hm, nope! That’s a mean thing to say though, Kana-chan.”

“There’s a chakra signature on the third floor, east side of the building. We should start there.”

Since she’d pinpointed a chakra signature, she took the lead. There was a balcony on the second floor and she eyed it from a distance. The room beyond the glass doors was dark, indicating the room was likely empty. They approached together and Kana went first, leaving Tobi to feign struggling to climb and then appear on the balcony in a swirl, his chakra disappearing and reappearing at her side. Kana checked the doors, but they were locked, so Tobi walked through them and opened them from the inside. She envied his ability. To make herself feel better, she slapped him on the back in thanks and she knew the wince and sigh came from Obito. Just as she’d thought, the room was empty, and she didn’t locate any seals for security. The chakra signature she’d focused on began to move, so she pointed at the ceiling and followed it with her finger, signaling the movement to Tobi. Kana opened the door enough to peek into the hallway, but she didn’t see anyone, and she couldn’t sense chakra signatures on the floor, so they left the room and continued their search. The two other chakra signatures remained in the same spot, so she made a split-second decision to alter their route. They stopped outside of a room on the second floor, the double doors muffling sounds coming from the room. When one of the doors opened, Kana found herself face-to-face with Hiromitsu. His grey mustache was easy to identify, and the man held a shakujo that spoke of his position. The second person in the room swung the remaining door open and nearly hit Tobi in the face. Hiromitsu saw the deep scratch over her hitai-ate and frowned, his narrowed eyes moving from her hitai-ate to Tobi’s mask, then to their matching cloaks.

“We’re here from Hanagawa. We have reason to believe the missing persons we’re looking for are in this village.”

“We have no missing children.”

“I didn’t say they were children.”

Kana narrowed her eyes at him and he swung his shakujo at her head. The second person ran away, so she motioned for Tobi to pursue him, leaving her with Hiromitsu. His specialization didn’t require him to keep up on his other shinobi skills, so she quickly overpowered him in taijutsu. She blocked every blow with a kunai, then he took an opportunity to flee. She threw a kunai at his back that he barely dodged, so she used a body flicker to catch up to him. The chase that ensued took them through the building and out onto the streets, where she threw kunai and shuriken and he dodged, over and over again. When she tired of chasing him, she drew her wakizashi and cut his right leg off.

Breathing heavily, she stood over him as he struggled to stop the bleeding. Still, he looked defiant, and she realized too late that he’d pulled an explosive tag from his sleeve and slapped it onto his chest. The explosion sent her flying backwards, where she slammed into a cart of fruit, the variety of food raining down on her. The explosion left her disoriented, and how hard she’d hit the cart knocked the wind right out of her. Slowly, she began to shove the heavy fruit from her legs. The ringing in her ears took time to fade, and her chest still ached from the oxygen forced from her lungs. She had unanswered questions and the burnt, scattered remains of a dead man. She was lucky the blast hadn’t killed her, and her cloak protected her from the heat, though she’d need a new one. She collected the shakujo from where it was blown across the street, then she limped over to the center of the blast, but as she’d thought, he left no hint. With her wakizashi sheathed, she used the shakujo as a crutch, her right knee aching whenever she put weight on it.

“Kana-chan! Tobi heard a big boom!”

“Yeah, that would have been Hiromitsu taking his own life. He didn’t give anything away, not that I’m surprised.”

“Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m using this shakujo as a crutch because it’s a fashion statement.” Kana spoke through gritted teeth, and she missed the look in his eye when she snapped at him. When the shakujo snapped in two, she nearly fell on her face, but he caught her right arm. “Please tell me you beat the answers out of the other guy,” Kana sighed, reluctantly throwing an arm around him so he could support her. She didn’t expect him to sweep her off her feet, carrying her bridal style as she squirmed. “Tobi! Put me down!” He whistled as he tightened his hold on her, so she slumped, becoming dead weight. He continued carrying her.

“The children are in the village,” Tobi assured her, telling her nothing specific. He happily carried her through the streets. While she didn’t understand where they were going, he seemed to know his way. He approached a shrine on the outskirts of the village, the building clearly an early structure, given its old style. Outside of the entrance, he let her down, then wrapped an arm around her to help her forward. “We can pray for good fortune!”

“You brought me to a shrine to pray for good fortune?”

“Yes. And no.”

“You think they’re here.”

“They should be, or that guy died for no reason.” She laughed at his words, mainly due to the tone he used; for a moment, she glimpsed Obito again. When she focused on the building, she found nine chakra signatures, all of them below ground. Only six children were unaccounted for, so she assumed the other three signatures were guards, perhaps other children from neighboring lands. She tapped his shoulder nine times and he nodded. “I’ll look at your knee before we leave,” he promised, his voice nice to her ears. And then he was Tobi, and she suffered through his optimistic chatter as they tried to sneak into the shrine.

She guided them around the shrine, but they couldn’t find a way to the basement, so Kana leaned against a wall while Tobi searched the entire shrine again. The thought struck her to rip up the tatami, so she started doing that. When he returned, she had a few sections torn up, so he helped her destroy the rest of the tatami. The last section they removed revealed a trap door with stone steps leading into the dark underground. Kana stayed at the top of the stairs until Tobi waved for her to follow. She held his hand as she descended the stairs, not trusting her knee. The small room was lit by a torch that had been burning for some time. Without prompting, Kana took the torch and Tobi went back to helping her along. The underground consisted of the entry room, a long, narrow hallway, and a large chamber. As soon as the torch was in the chamber, the shouts started. Children stared at them from cages, some huddling in their confines, while others realized she and Tobi weren’t their tormentors. The extra three chakra signatures were other children. She surveyed the children, easily pinpointing the six from Hanagawa. The three additional children were just as dirty and the room smelled filthy. She didn’t want to think about the standing water beneath her sandals.

“What’s your name?”

“Hanare.”

“It’s your lucky day!”

As she began to examine the locks on the cages, Kana heard Tobi conversing with one of the children. She didn’t want to use her blade on the metal, so she resorted to using her last kunai. One by one, the locks were broken. The last lock she broke belonged to the nine-year-old boy from Hanagawa. She took one look at his dirty face and the tears and snot running down it and motioned for him to join her outside of the cage. When she noticed something off about a child carefully watching her, she whistled and Tobi stopped speaking to Hanare to look at her. She signed about the mind reading and he slowly turned to look at Hanare again. He saw something in her that had him backhanding her. The other children tried to flee, but Kana blocked the exit. Obito went to each child, sharingan active, and inspected them. He killed three children, leaving the original six from Hanagawa. He didn’t need to sign to tell her that they’d been converted to spies. As the children cowered, Obito approached her and had her lift her cloak to show him her knee. She kept her hold on her wakizashi, even though she didn’t need to threaten the children. He did what he could for her knee, but she heard him hum.

“You need to stay off of it. It’s inflamed.” His voice was low and lacked the comical tone she associated with Tobi. He’d left Tobi behind to slaughter the children. He seemed unapologetic, but she couldn’t condemn him for it, because she would have done the same thing. “Once we’re outside, I’ll carry you.” He didn’t give her a chance to argue before he stood. She dropped her cloak over her knees once more, while he went to gather the scared children. “Who wants to go home?” He said it in such a cheery tone that the children exchanged nervous glances. “Let’s go! Back to Hanagawa!”

True to his word, he carried her on his back as they began the voyage back to Hanagawa. To keep everyone together, she summoned a mountain lion to allow the children to go ahead with some guidance. She was pleased it wasn’t another trafficking incident. With Hiromitsu gone, she didn’t think the kidnappings would start again, but there was no guarantee. Jomae still stood. Halfway to Hanagawa, Tobi decided he wanted to run, so she buried her face in his neck and let him act like an idiot. Mission completed.

Chapter Text

At night, the fire spread across the hillside, the flames devouring fresh grass, leaving nothing in its wake. The burning hillside was a beacon in the night, the largest she'd ever seen, and when it threatened to spread, the villagers killed the flames, leaving nothing but wisps of smoke to ascend into the sky. The display reminded Kana of the first time she’d successfully completed her great fireball technique. The flames were mesmerizing. She kept fire close to her heart, even if it burnt her from the inside out. There were four of her clan left and fire tied them together. As a child, she would have loved the fire devouring that small piece of the world. As it was, she’d watched the flames dance until there was nothing left. With the fire out, she lightly slapped Obito’s hand and they turned their attention from the hillside to the massive bonfire in the center of Hanagawa. Men danced around the fire, some of them breathing fire as if they were shinobi. She took pleasure in the sound of the crackling flames. Again, it took her back to her childhood, to the first time her father told her he was proud of her. She’d rarely heard the words, so they’d meant everything to her. The hillside of flames had been controlled, even though it had looked so wild. The bonfire was the same way. Flames rose and danced, just as the men danced. It had to do with new beginnings, of the ascension to manhood, but women and children still enjoyed the show, all of them cheering and clapping. Beyond the smell of the bonfire, Kana smelled the grease of fried street food in the air.

“Are you hungry?” She didn’t know why she bothered with the question when she knew he didn’t need to eat to survive. It was odd to think that he’d had so much done to his body that he didn’t even require basic sustenance to live. When he shook his head, she nudged his hand again, then she walked in the direction of the food stalls. She wasn’t surprised when he followed her. “I’m looking for good yakitori or gyoza,” Kana informed him as they searched the line of stalls. He took her hand when she wasn’t expecting it and pointed to a stall that smelled of spices. The stall served yakitori, so she took two skewers and handed one to him, even if he didn’t want any. As they walked, she picked chicken from the skewer and popped the food into her mouth, including the bits of scallion also skewered on the stick. “It’s pretty neat. I’ve never seen a whole hillside burn.” She glanced in the direction of the dark hill, where wisps of smoke still drifted into the air.

“There are fire festivals throughout the Land of Fire. It’s not uncommon.” She saw him lift his mask enough to put the skewer up to his mouth. When he withdrew the stick, a piece of chicken and scallion were gone. He hummed around the food. “It’s not bad,” he shared, shrugging his shoulders. She’d wondered if he could taste anything anymore, if it was one more thing stolen from him when he’d been pieced back together. Instead of sharing her thoughts, she took another bite of chicken. “After this, you’ll meet with Sasori at Hiraizo on the border of Wind. He has details on the mission.” She frowned at the talk of work, since she’d wanted to enjoy one night without being consumed with all things Akatsuki. When he noticed her hard stare, he sighed at her.

“I’m looking forward to working with him, but I’d rather talk about anything else, including climate change.”

“That’s a heavy topic for a festival.”

“And Akatsuki isn’t?”

They sat down by the river flowing along the western side of the village and finished off their yakitori. Halfway through his skewer, Obito offered the rest to Kana, which she happily accepted. Kakashi had been right about her favorite foods. Thinking about him made her chest hurt, so she shoved thoughts of him aside in favor of listening to the river gliding over the rocks. She left the skewers on the ground beside her and stretched out her feet, letting them dangle over the flowing water, while Obito had one leg brought up toward his chest and the other stretched out. Tobi would have filled the awkward silence with an endless stream of words, but Obito was unusually silent. She assumed he was still angry about the loss of Kakuzu’s partner, but she knew better than to broach the subject again. She remembered the way the burning hillside looked against the night sky. And she thought of her father again. The image of his corpse would haunt her for the rest of her life. He hadn’t been good to her, but the few positive interactions they did share colored him in a more favorable light. She’d lost him to save Kakashi, and it had been a waste. Everything she’d done for Kakashi had been a waste. Her thoughts went right back to the man and she hated it. She couldn’t help but wonder what he would have thought of the flames swaying with the light breeze.

“Are you going to go back to avoiding me after this?”

She didn’t look at him when she asked the question, but she felt his eyes on her. She waited for him to deny that he’d been avoiding her; she waited for him to accuse her of doing the same. There was no great denial, no follow-up accusation, just the sound of the water as it passed over wet stones and slid along the riverbank. His chance for a reply slipped away, carried along by the river. When she looked at him, she saw his profile, because his eyes stared into the dark forest opposite them.

“I wasn’t avoiding you. I had things I needed to take care of. You were fine on your own.”

He shrugged his shoulders and she narrowed her eyes at him, convinced that he’d lied to her. She picked up a handful of grass and threw it at the side of his face, but the grass passed through him. He wouldn’t look at her, and that irritated her more than the obvious lie. She deserved his attention. She deserved an honest answer. And he gave her silence, as if she meant absolutely nothing to him. Maybe that was the problem. She felt something and he felt nothing at all. He’d told her the truth in that hotel in Lightning. She didn’t know why she expected something different, something more. In the end, men were all the same. They used her, even when she thought it was her using them. Men were useless, pathetic pigs, and she just had to fall for another one, as if she picked pieces of trash from the streets. And they were trash, every single one of them. She wanted to yell at him. She wanted to shake him. She wanted him to feel the same way, if only so they could suffer together. She’d traded one broken toy for another. And wasn’t that just like her.

“At least have the decency to look me in the eye when you lie to me,” Kana snorted, shaking her head at him. His attention shifted to her, and she didn’t bother trying to hide the anger bubbling below the surface. Sometimes all they knew was anger. They were too similar; they were too different. They were jagged, broken pieces of their former selves. Maybe she’d always been a little broken. “You’ve been avoiding me because of what happened in Lightning. You’re seeing something that isn’t there. I’m not asking you to fall in love with me, Obito. Don’t be deluded.”

He saw right through her. But she knew he was right, that what he’d said to her was true. Obito had nothing to give to her when every part of himself went into Tsuki no Me. She had so much of herself to give, every mismatched piece of herself, and he didn’t want her. There was no grand display of affection, no whispers of love and adoration, just the sound of the river and the flickering fireflies. She knew that it only took him seconds to expose the lie, to pick her apart and put her back together again. She’d fallen for him. She’d fallen in love with the guy who single-handedly destroyed her life. He didn’t call attention to her lie, and she was grateful for it, because she chose to deny her feelings until the day she died, until she ascended to the pure land or rotted in the depths of hell. Her life would have been different, if he’d never introduced himself. Maybe she would have gone on to marry Kakashi. Maybe they would have had a semi-decent life together. And maybe not. Obito had taken her future and set it on fire. She was the hillside burning in the night, flames dancing, outstretched to the sky. She pressed her palms into the grass and pushed herself to her feet. When it was obvious he wasn’t going to follow her, she continued alone.

The bonfire had grown in size, and the whole town was lit with colorful paper lanterns. Women and children danced with the men, finally included in the celebration. She watched the fire breathers create flames that sent the crowd into a frenzy. She only made fire to hurt people. She’d never created fire simply for the beauty of it. They saw a softer side to the art of fire. She stayed on the street for several minutes, then she returned to her room, where she threw her sandals at the far wall and sat down on her side of the bed. She should have let the subject go, but being ignored irritated her. She’d always craved attention and praise. He knew exactly how to make her feel several times worse. After draping her cloak across the chair in the room, she went for a shower, where gardenia took her back to the Land of Lightning, where she wallowed in regret, guilt, and shame. She hated the scent, and it was on her skin, following her from the bathroom, taunting her in the bedroom. She was drying her hair when he returned to the room, so she chose to ignore him.

He stood in the bathroom doorway and watched her brush and dry her hair, so her eyes focused on his reflection. He'd removed his mask, so she followed the scars along the right side of his face. Even with them, he looked handsome. She didn't want him to continue the conversation, so she shifted her focus back to her hair. When it was dry, she pulled it into a ponytail and left the hairdryer on the corner of the bathroom sink. She swept past him, but he caught her left wrist. Her first reaction was to punch him, but she didn't want to start a fight over hurt feelings she shouldn't have had in the first place. She could blame men. She could blame the world. In the end, she rightfully blamed herself. He pressed his lips to the side of her neck and inhaled the gardenia she hated. It was a bad idea, easily the worst for her, perhaps the top ten for him. Still, she rested his left hand on her hip and drew him in for a kiss. She tasted the spice from their yakitori.

Before they even left the bathroom doorway, he'd lifted her shirt over her head and dropped it on the floor, while she unbuttoned and unzipped his pants. They made the mutual decision to make things more complicated. Before he removed his shirt, they shared long kisses that spoke of more. Nothing was truly meaningless, and that was the problem. Nothing stayed meaningless. He guided her toward the bed until her calves hit the side of the bed, then he captured her in another kiss. His hands roamed her naked body, though his left hand eventually slid down her stomach and between her thighs. Her lips parted when he touched her, lightly teasing her clit with little circles made with his index and middle fingers. When he pressed down, she felt weak in the knees. She stopped him before he could continue and climbed into the bed. He preferred being over her, and she just wanted him inside of her, so she accepted missionary.

He trailed kisses over her chest and abdomen, until she felt his tongue on her clit. Though she enjoyed the feeling, she wondered why he was suddenly so giving. Eyes clenched shut, she tangled her fingers in his hair and he groaned, but it only encouraged him. She felt his finger slide along her slit, then she felt it enter her. Their mutual decision made things more complicated, but she loved every moment of it. He crooked his finger, hitting the same spot over and over, and she moaned his name. He stopped before she came, but her whole body tingled; she'd been so close and he'd denied her. The kiss they shared was a momentary distraction for the moment when he entered her. For a moment, it was uncomfortable, then he started moving, his thrusts slow and deep. She hated that she was so close. She came without much effort, and he kept going, taking her through overstimulation and right back to pleasure.

"I'm close," she whispered, her lips parted, too dry. He rubbed her clit and she came with a loud moan that stretched into heavy breathing. "Keep going. Don't stop."

He kissed her again, then he started moving faster, his hips snapping forward as she arched her back. She heard him warn her that he was close and all she could think was that she never wanted it to end. He groaned, her name falling from his lips, guiding her to the edge again. Her thighs shook and her chest ached from time spent on breath play, but she'd never felt better. The come down was both blissful and difficult, because the quiet gave her time to think. She didn't want to consider it a mistake. As he eased out of her, she felt content. He lay on his stomach beside her and she remained on her back, both of them still gone. The last time someone had touched her so tenderly, she'd loved the person. Maybe she loved any man willing to put up with her. Maybe she was just that desperate.

"You have feelings for me." She didn't know why she chose to say the words aloud, but it was too late to take them back. She turned her head to see him, expecting him to run away, to avoid her gaze, to do anything other than stare at her. She reached out to run her fingers through his hair. He didn't pull away from her. He didn't run away; he didn't avoid her. He let her touch him. "You told me you had nothing left to give me."

"I meant it. I can't be that person for you, Kana. I can't afford distractions. Tsuki no Me means everything to me." He stressed the name of his project, as if emphasis would drive her to feel the same way. She didn't care if the world blossomed or burned. Maybe that was why she didn't feel the same way. The lightning flowers on her arm reminded her of the first time she'd given her heart away.

"You just made love to me." She didn't understand how he could treat her so well and dismiss her moments later. He ran a hand over his face, and she knew that he'd been caught up too. He wanted her, just like she wanted him. But he chose to deny himself that pleasure in life, and he meant to deny her of it too. "I mean something to you, or you wouldn't be here right now. You want me." She didn't know why she had to tell him how he felt. She wondered if the old love he'd had for Rin shut down that part of himself. Maybe the curse of hatred had ruined him. "I want you, Obito. I want you when you're being a complete bastard to me. I want you when you're playing that insufferable Tobi role. I want you when you hold me at night. I want you when you're angry and sad and happy."

He dragged her into his arms and kissed her several times, each instance preventing more declarations of how much she wanted him. He held her against him and she succumbed to gardenia memories. She didn't want another instance of pain, and though she loved every one of his kisses, they left her feeling empty at the end. She wanted to hear the words. She wanted to hear a confession. She wanted too much.

"I want you too."

The words she'd wanted to hear.

Chapter Text

She awoke to lips pressed against the nape of her neck. Memories of last night slowly rose from the morning fog in her mind and she couldn't help the happy sigh that slipped between her parted lips. She'd acknowledged her feelings, the first to break the ice, and she felt vulnerable. She didn't like feeling exposed, but she couldn't regret her confession, not with his arms around her, not with his kisses on her skin. She closed her eyes and his hand slipped between her thighs. They made love in the light shining through parted curtains, then they faced one another, allowing her to see every emotion buried in his dark eyes. He brushed stray strands of hair from her face and met her part way for a soft kiss. The fact that they needed to leave hovered, buried in thoughts of how he felt inside of her, how he moaned her name, how he loved her with such an intensity that she felt like the only person in the world. And then the blissful afterglow came to a gradual end. He was the first to get up, so she sat up, the sheet held against her chest, as if she needed to hide from him. He gathered his clothing and she watched him dress, until all that he needed was his mask, then she forced herself to move.

"Do I need to hold your hand or can I trust you to get to Hiraizo?"

"I made it here, didn't I?"

"Which was surprising.”

“I have nowhere to go. At least this group offers some protection. It’s more than I’d get on my own. Am I supposed to go back to Konoha? I think Kakashi made it clear that I’m best in a body scroll, so you’re stuck with me.” He snorted at her words and she smiled at him. He didn’t rush her as she collected her clothing, but she had a feeling he would leave her before she returned from the bathroom. “At least the sex is good,” she added, another smile shared between them. He found her shirt on his side of the bed and tossed it to her. Before he could put his mask on, she chose to steal another kiss.

They didn’t talk about what they’d said to one another. She didn’t need something concrete between them, not when she recalled exactly how it felt to plan a future with someone. There was no guarantee that she would live to see Obito’s ideal world, just like there was no guarantee that he would live long enough to make that perfect world. She hadn’t fully committed to Tsuki no Me, but she knew that if Obito wanted to build a better world, she would do her best to make sure he succeeded. He chose to leave while she was in the shower, so she returned to an empty room. She took stock of her weapons, checking that they were sharp and in good condition, then she put her cloak over her clothes and strapped her wakizashi onto her back. She bid goodbye to the colorful leaves of Hanagawa and began the trek to Hiraizo, with the promise of desert winds in her future.

When the desert heat greeted her, she sighed through her nose and reconsidered all of her life choices. She hated the desert. Her very first C-rank mission had been an escort mission through the desert, and she was drowning in sweat and dying of thirst the entire time. Hiraizo was on the edge of the dry heat, and she glimpsed desert sands in the distance. She prayed that her mission with Sasori took her far away from the Land of Wind. He’d been the one to pick the rendezvous point, and it wasn’t a surprise that he picked the desert, considering his former position as a Sunagakure shinobi. She would have picked somewhere better, like the northern border of the Land of Earth, where autumn snow fell in feet. As soon as she entered the village, people took note of her attire and went in the opposite direction, showing that Akatsuki was slowly making a name for itself. She was too amused at the people hurrying away from her. The missions she’d taken had been tame, nothing too violent or graphic. There was no reason for them to run away from her. Akatsuki focused on monetary gains, taking missions that brought in the most ryo. They weren’t all bad.

She found Sasori outside of the bounty station. He was hidden within Hiruko, so she saw nothing but the hunched figure and two beady eyes. She hated the puppet, but it was one of his favorites. Few knew that Hiruko was a puppet. Even she didn’t know what Sasori looked like, how the years had aged him. He was in his thirties—she knew that much. Kakuzu had been stressing the importance of retrieving bounties for their kills, so she hoped the mission wasn’t bounty related. Bounty hunting was below her. Maybe it was arrogant of her to feel that way, but she didn’t want to turn in severed heads for cash. He didn’t greet her when she approached him, so she lightly knocked on Hiruko’s head in greeting, then they began a slow walk through Hiraizo, where she waited for him to detail their plans. He had a passion for planning and punctuality, so she let him take control.

“I chose a war mission."

"Thank fuck."

"I thought you might say that. I want to test my new technique."

"The red secret technique."

Sasori had yet to tell her more than the code name. She knew not to pry, because he'd spent every moment fine-tuning the technique, obsessing over details. In comparison, her approach to battle was straightforward. She'd learned that quick, clean kills were best, so she had little need for specialized jutsu. She had eyes that were perfect for copying, so she had a large repertoire. She'd never cared enough to create her own jutsu, not when she could easily pick something up on the fly. Sasori was an artist at heart, every battle a grand performance, and much went into his work. He was a prodigy, and she understood all about prodigies. When it became clear that he wasn't going to elaborate, she rolled her eyes and changed the subject.

"What's the location and our targets?"

"Our destination is the Land of This. We're going to eliminate everyone."

She frowned. The daimyo wasn't a terrible man, but he was arrogant. The world existed to bow to him. He wasn't pretty to look at, so the man had absolutely nothing going for him. He had a young daughter, but she couldn't remember the girl's name. The Land of This wasn't especially large, so the area wasn't difficult to cover and navigate. It wasn't an impossible mission, or Sasori wouldn't have selected it. She didn't care about anyone in the nation, so she had no qualms about killing men, women, and children. It was a change of pace. She'd thought that the organization might give her the nicer missions, where they came off as saviors, as Konan paraded as a savior for Amegakure. The thought of murdering all of those people took her right back to ANBU, where a mission was a mission. Akatsuki asked something of her, not a kage. Obito asked something of her. One more step toward Tsuki no Me. She hummed in response, though it was late.

"There's a ronin there that guards the daimyo, and he's known for his mastery of kenjutsu. He can strike a person down without direct contact. You can test your new technique, but I want him." She looked over at the puppet, waiting for his response. They continued in silence for several minutes, where she knew he contemplated her words.

"Fine. Don't get in my way," he warned her. Some might have taken the words as a threat, but he meant exactly what he said. Getting in his way would get her poisoned, and he'd already informed her that his poison had no known antidote. She didn't want to suffer and die over three days. "My last partner did." She remembered the man. He hadn't lasted long.

"Mm. I'll keep that in mind. When are you going to climb your ass out of that puppet?"

"Hiruko is the perfect offensive and defensive puppet, so there's no need."

"Yes, your lucky eleventh. I'm not a long range fighter, so I don't see the appeal."

"You just enjoy stabbing people too much."

She laughed at the words and his bland tone. He wasn't wrong. She felt more involved when she fought in close combat. She was looking forward to fighting the ronin because she enjoyed kenjutsu, and she could easily learn new moves from the man. And if she tired of him, she could always use her sharingan to kill him. Sasori thought her eyes were overpowered, but his interest in them let her know that he'd considered her for a human puppet. She knew not to let her guard down. As much as she appreciated his art and abilities, she had no interest in becoming a new addition to his collection.

"Do you always sleep your way into the good graces of others or is this just one incident?"

"I don't think that's any of your business. If you'd like to discuss it at length, I can rip you out of that puppet and show you exactly why I'm in this organization."

"It was a question."

"And that was a threat."

"Insolent brat," she heard him complain. She snorted at him, the insult easily sliding off of her.

She'd wondered if someone would make a comment. A similar question had likely been posed to Konan, at some point. She wasn't there for her pretty face. She was useful. He'd insulted her, and she hoped he enjoyed her threat, because she'd meant the words. Her tumultuous relationship with Obito had nothing to do with her placement in Akatsuki. Once they began collecting bijuu, she knew the opinion would vanish. Until then, she could only threaten and deny, two things she excelled in. They didn't talk for the rest of the day, but she made peace with the silence. Sasori wasn't the talkative type and her mood had plummeted. She thought of what awaited them in the Land of This and tried to move on, but she held grudges and stewed in her own anger. She would never get an apology, so she didn't wait for one.

The Land of This was a beautiful place. The village itself was more organized than Konoha. The streets aligned and the buildings were all built in similar styles. The first daimyo had been obsessed with perfection; he'd wanted the best village in existence, but he'd passed away before its completion. The daimyo in power was the sixth daimyo, all of the others dying under suspicious circumstances. He wasn’t as nice as he pretended. The last she’d heard, he’d had the ronin kidnap the neighboring land’s young lord. The village looked lovely under the fading light of day, but she wasn’t there to admire her surroundings. The mission, from the Land of That, was to kill everyone and return the young lord to his father, the daimyo. Sasori had mentioned that he didn’t care what happened to the kid, so she was in charge of locating the boy. They’d agreed to spend the rest of the day planning and strike after nightfall.

“I think we should blow up the gates or use a barrier. I’d prefer a barrier.”

“It would encompass the entire village.”

“We have the time to do it. We can activate it remotely. It’s not complicated. I’m decent with seals.”

“I’m better.” She stared at him, unwilling to drag them both into an argument. He’d stated a fact, but she didn’t appreciate him pointing out the obvious. With a huff, she turned her head away. He observed the entrance they passed, then he turned in a small circle to catch glimpses of the other entrances. There were five. “I'll take care of the barrier. It shouldn’t take me long. Find the kid.”

He left before she had the chance to respond, so she flipped him off and shifted her focus to chakra signatures. Most children had less chakra, discounting clan kids, so she started with small chakra signatures centered around the castle. The village had no shinobi forces, but some missing nin had sought refuge there, just like Tatewaki, the ronin. She enjoyed the time she spent traversing the streets, even knowing that her mission would kill every person she passed. The mission came from the Land of That, the village obsessed with conquering and annexing neighboring lands. The daimyo of This made a bad decision to abduct the young lord, so he would face the repercussions, as would his people. Kana stopped at the bridge leading to the castle and admired the old stone wall surrounding the collection of buildings. There were four entrances to the castle, all of them guarded. She already decided to rig the bridges with explosives. Glancing down at the deep blue water beneath the bridge, she tried to judge its depth. The drop could kill civilians, which was the goal. While Sasori swept through the village, she would focus on the castle and its grounds. The sky bled red in preparation for night.

Chapter Text

Sasori stood next to her and admired the explosives she set on the final castle bridge. She had set them to detonate at the same time, giving herself precious minutes to cross the bridge and begin her mission. He glanced down at the water, just as she’d done hours earlier. She waited for his nod, then they separated. She saw the moment when the barrier activated, then she focused on the castle grounds. The guards on the other side of the bridge met her halfway, where she kicked one in the chest and sent him into the water. The second guard had a sword, and he was decent with it, so they exchanged blows, her wakizashi and his tanto meeting over and over again. Her blade connected with his shoulder and she continued the swing, cutting off his arm. He screamed and jumped away from her, so she pushed past him, leaving him on the bridge. Seconds later, the explosives detonated, cutting off travel from the castle to the rest of the village. She heard the first screams from the village, and she knew that Sasori had already moved on with his own part of the plan.

Inside the castle grounds, she met with a multitude of missing nin parading as guards. They scattered to the entrances, unsure where to focus their attention. Killing all of them on her own was a pain, but not impossible. She threw shuriken at a group of them and they scattered. The shuriken managed to hit two of them, but they easily freed the shuriken and threw them right back at her. She deflected the shuriken with her blade, then shifted her focus to the men attempting to surround her. One of the missing nin decided to skip right to ninjutsu, completely unconcerned with his fellow guards. The jet of water swept three men aside, and she created an earth wall that cracked under the pressure. Hairline fractures decorated the wall, the edges crumbling with the force. A fist broke through the wall and she let the man continue to tear her wall apart. When he managed to break the wall, she sent a fireball at him that had him countering with another water trumpet. She followed up with another earth release that sent jagged rocks at him, then the rest of the missing nin jumped in, trying to strike her when she was distracted. One struck her and she poofed out of existence, revealing a clone. She surfaced from the ground and dragged two men down, easily moving on to behead them.

The flame dragon she sent circled around her, catching the men, setting them aflame. Breathing hard, she shifted her focus from ninjutsu to kenjutsu, the numbers having dwindled enough to allow her to focus on the few men remaining. One struck her in the back, though she’d jerked away to avoid the worst of it. She swung around and kicked him in the side, sending him tumbling across the ground. She jerked her head back to avoid a fist and struck with the hilt of her blade, cracking her attacker over the head. His head split open and she finished him off by stabbing him in the chest. She kicked him in the stomach to get him off her blade, then continued the fight with the remaining two men, one of which was the ninjutsu user. When it was just the two of them, he fought recklessly, clearly lacking chakra control. He put so much into his attacks that he fell to his knees after they exchanged fire and water jutsu. She punched him in the face, so he fell over, then she stabbed him in the chest. Stepping on his stomach, she held his body down to pull her wakizashi free. Before she could leave the courtyard, more guards rushed into the open space, making her sigh. She used earth release: swamp of the underworld, trapping most of them. As they struggled to free themselves, she sent a fireball, killing them.

To cut the fighting short, she activated her sharingan. Her eyes turned red, then her tomoe shifted into the familiar pattern of her mangekyou. Obito was better with controlling others, so she didn’t bother genjutsu meant to manipulate them. She matched their strikes, finding openings that she might have missed without her sharingan. And when she had a free moment, she used her yin release and genjutsu to overwhelm them. One after another, they screamed and collapsed. Blood ran from her eyes, obscuring her vision. The pain greeted her like an old friend, but she suffered through it to clear the courtyard. They eventually learned to close their eyes, but she didn’t need to hold eye contact to use basic genjutsu. And they were weak to it. She struck them down in the precious seconds it took to break the genjutsu. Annoyed, she flicked her wrist to rid her blade of most of their blood, then she sheathed it and continued into one of the buildings. She continued her search, systematically killing everyone in her way. As she moved, she continued checking for chakra signatures.

Her final destination was the castle itself, and there were few chakra signatures remaining. When she felt the first kiss of lightning, her heart started pounding in her chest. She felt the first rush of anxiety, followed quickly by a familiar pain in her chest. She hadn’t tracked him in weeks. The last time she’d focused on his chakra signature, he’d been in the far east, beyond Kumogakure. In the village surrounding the castle, she felt Sasori’s chakra spread in multiple directions, reminding her of a spiderweb. His red secret technique included a great deal of puppets. Right then, he proved himself as the greatest puppet master in history. And she was alone, facing Kakashi again. Frowning, she turned away from that section of the castle and went in search of other chakra signatures. She found servants, and she cut them down. She found the two children in the back of the castle, in a training area. The kids were younger than she first thought, probably seven, if she had to guess. Tatewaki separated her from them. Kakashi must have thought she was there to assassinate the daimyo, or maybe they were so confident in Tatewaki’s skill that there was no need for Kakashi to protect the children. The thought excited her.

The man had brown, wavy hair pulled back in a ponytail, with two pieces hanging down over his forehead. He had stubble on his chin and the very beginning of a mustache. He was older than she’d anticipated, most likely in his thirties. The way he shifted on his feet spoke of an old injury, where someone had bested him enough to severely wound him. She doubted the person survived. As soon as his hand went to his hilt, she knew his fighting style was the traditional samurai style from the Land of Iron. He fought using iaido, relying on quick-draw strikes, which were difficult to anticipate, meaning she needed her sharingan. She shifted her stance, prepared to focus on the first strike, to aim with strength and end it before he had the chance to draw his sword, but he was fast, and he used chakra shockwaves. Just his first strike told her everything she needed to know about him. She found a formidable opponent. Her sharingan activated, her first strike blocked, wasted on him. She shifted from that style to the more traditional style. When he struck again and she dodged the shockwave, she employed the use of a parrying dagger in the form of a kunai in her second hand. It was untraditional, something she’d learned from easterners. Tatewaki arched a brow at her.

“You’re not bad,” she complimented him, dodging another shockwave that sent topsoil flying. He frowned at her and motioned for the children to stand back. Her attacks remained focused on him, but he continued defending them, as if she only meant to get around him. “So you use chakra shockwaves. That’s different. In combination with your iaido, that’s impressive.”

“I’ve never fought someone wielding two weapons. You didn’t master it in Konoha.”

“No, I didn’t. I borrowed it from the Land of Lightning. They aren’t all worthless hacks.”

“What is your goal?”

“To enjoy our time together. Once I strike you down, I’ll be killing the girl and returning the young lord to his father.”

The boy looked hopeful, but he quickly turned his eyes to Tatewaki’s back. He cared for the man, and it was clear the man cared for him too. Tatewaki wasn’t like the others she’d faced. He meant to protect the children until his final breath. Tatewaki struck before her eyes were on him. She countered the chakra shockwave by sending a rush of chakra from her tenketsu, enveloping her body. His attack had her planting her feet, but it didn’t send her flying. She’d successfully countered his infamous shockwave. He narrowed his eyes at her, because while she managed to figure out a counter strategy, he still retained his amazing control in the iaido style. She hated samurai from Iron because they had specialty schools, allowing a number of samurai to learn and master iaido. She fought well, but the style still irritated her. Little tells gave away the moment he meant to strike, but the speed and precision was too great for her to maintain control of the situation. He struck at her chest, but she blocked with the kunai and struck with her wakizashi, cutting into his side. He knocked the kunai from her hand and managed to nick her left collarbone before she kneed him in the gut. The feel of lightning kissed her senses again, the static a constant reminder that Kakashi still remained between her and the successful completion of her mission.

Her hitai-ate blocked a blow, reminding her of the wise choice to wear it around her neck. She kicked his calf and when he stumbled, she pivoted and lashed out at his right side. He struck her with a quick draw that cut through her cloak, splitting it wide open across her stomach. The blade cut through her romper she wore underneath the cloak, a slim line of blood running from the sharpened edge that cut through her skin. She’d opened herself up to the attack, but she surprised him by following through with her swing anyway, cutting his side. The next strike, she went for his head. He pulled back and blocked, but her blade still got his left eye. Blood ran into his eye as he pressed a hand over the left side of his face. She used the blind spot to kick him and punch him in the gut, sending him off balance. Before she could kill him, the young lord jumped in the way and she had to pull back to keep from cutting him in half. Tatewaki scolded him for jumping into the fight, but she studied him with a deep frown. She understood the need to protect someone, but it was a stupid move. She rewarded him by backhanding him. He clutched his cheek and the girl, Chiyo, stepped in to pull Shu aside.

She felt Kakashi move, then she lowered her blade and observed the way the children returned to block Tatewaki. She had moments to decide what she wanted to do. Tatewaki shoved the children aside and shifted into a stance, his left eye tightly closed. He didn’t expect her to knee him in the gut. He doubled over and she struck him over the head twice with the hilt of her sword. He fell to his knees and she kicked him in the head. Chiyo screamed and rushed to his side to cradle his bleeding head, while Shu took a stance with a blade that was much too big for him. Tatewaki lived, and he would remember their fight for the rest of his life. She easily disarmed Shu and grabbed him by his upper arm. She tried to drag him away, but she saw Kakashi approaching. She shoved Shu in the direction of Chiyo, knowing she couldn’t escape the battle. Her eyes dropped to the scars on her right hand and forearm, memories of their last encounter washing over her. She couldn’t forget the sound of him choking on his own blood. She’d let him live and she regretted it, just like she thought she would. His mask couldn’t protect his identity, and they both knew it.

“Kana.”

“Hound.”

“I didn’t expect to find you here. Is Itachi here too?”

“Mm. Nope. I have a shiny new partner today, not that it matters. Looks like it’s a rematch, isn’t it?”

His eyes focused on the scars revealed with the movement of her sleeve. He drew the tanto on his back and she sneered at him, unable to help herself. The first thing she learned, when their blades met, was the fact that he’d practiced. Any mistakes he’d made in the past were gone, and he used her eyes against her, using misdirection to fool her into thinking she knew his moves. She learned not to believe everything her sharingan saw, and he learned that sheer strength wouldn’t get him anywhere. He took in the sight of Tatewaki’s body, so she snorted. He was concerned with the man’s status, whether the man was alive or dead, when their fight mattered more. To prove the point, she used a simple earth wave to get his attention. She wanted to tell him how much she hated him, how she wanted to break every single bone in his body and set his nerves on fire, but she settled for quick strikes and counterattacks. He thought he had her with a strike to the head, but she moved so his blade caught her hitai-ate. There was a moment where his eyes widened, where he thought he actually had her, and she couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled from her throat. As if she’d let him kill her. He hadn’t learned.

They traded strikes with their blades, but their fight led to ninjutsu, because they both wanted more out of the fight than kenjutsu. She sheathed her blade and went through the hand seals for a flame dragon. He was faster, flying through the hand seals for a water dragon that drew on the water from the moat. She scowled as the two dragons collided. She replaced herself with a rock clone and he fought the obvious clone while she stayed back, considering the children. She grabbed Chiyo by the hair and the girl cried out in pain. Kana used her as a shield. Every time Kakashi tried to attack her, she thrust Chiyo forward and he was forced to stop short. She smiled as she used the girl, and she heard his frustrated growl.

“Hiding behind a child?”

“You mean you don’t want to kill this poor girl? Your heart's too big and it’s showing. I’m a wanted criminal. You should go through the girl to get to me. I’m more important than this girl, and your client is the daimyo, isn’t it? She’s collateral damage, Hound.”

“Is this who you really are? This is what you’re resorting to? I don’t know you at all.”

“Because I’m not doing it for Konoha, you suddenly don’t recognize me? You think I’m bad? What are you? You can’t justify your actions by saying it’s for the village. You’re still a glorified murderer! We’re not different!”

Kana threw Chiyo at him and he caught the girl in one arm. Kakashi shoved Chiyo to the side, clearing space for the fight again. Kana knew she was right. The only difference was that she accepted who she was and he hid behind honor and integrity that didn’t really exist. He was delusional. She knew she’d angered him when he lashed out with taijutsu. She used flame release to enhance her punches, aiming to burn him with her strikes. She caught him in the gut and he jumped back to put out the flames before they consumed him. She followed up by striking the air, sending flames at him again. He used a water bullet and the resulting steam ruined their view of one another. Kana touched the burning injury on her stomach, but she wasn’t bleeding bad enough to need first aid. She saw him gather lightning to his hand and she threw her head back and laughed. She went through the hand seals for the flame dragon, but she stayed on the last seal and a flame tiger came to life, taking off at him. He was forced to give up on raikiri. He tried countering with water, but she set another flame tiger at him. He hid behind a large earth wall, then the earth exploded outwards to release a lightning hound. She wasn’t good enough with wind release and though earth release was weak against lightning, it was all she had. She had little chakra left, so she created an earth wall, a rock clone, and hid underground. When she resurfaced, it was to punch Kakashi. Their sharingan met, but his hand was thrusting forward. She replaced herself with her clone and he impaled the clone with lightning.

Hands on her thighs, she was bent over, trying to gather air in her lungs. He observed her in the same manner. He’d made one and a half of his infamous attacks. She saw his sharingan close. He was out of chakra and exhausted, just like her. It was a draw. She threw shuriken at him and he substituted himself with a log, but she was already running in the direction of the castle. Every time he caught up to her, they exchanged blows, until she was outside of the daimyo’s room, kicking down the door. Kakashi grabbed her arm, but she elbowed him in the gut, spun around, and punched his mask. Blood seeped through the cracks on his mask, showing that she’d hurt him. She didn’t need to reach the daimyo to kill him. He looked at her in fear and Kakashi couldn’t get the warning out. Kana made eye contact and the man screamed and collapsed, blood running from his eyes, his nose, his mouth, and his ears. Her vision was blurry and she swayed on her feet, so when she resorted to a wrestling match with Kakashi, he easily overpowered her. He had her pinned to the floor and she spat blood at his mask. Chest heaving, she recalled the last time they’d been in such an intimate position. He saw the humor in her dark eyes, in the subtle curve of her lips, but there was no humor in his gaze. She’d failed to kill him again. She wondered if he still had it in him to kill her. He didn’t reach for a kunai. He didn’t reach for his tanto. He stared at her, and she stared at him. He’d failed his mission because of her.

“Well? I’m down. Aren’t you going to kill me? Go for it, Kakashi. Kill me. Cold-blooded Kakashi, right?”

“Don’t. I don’t have the chakra, and neither do you.”

“You mean you don’t want to stab me? Maybe you want to choke me.”

She smirked at him and he settled his hands around her throat, as if he meant to strangle her to death. When he couldn’t tighten his hands, he ripped off her hitai-ate and threw it aside, where it scraped along the hardwood floor. She glanced to the right, where it had been thrown, then her eyes went back to his mask. He tightened his grip and cut off her air supply, but she kept focused on his lone eye. He clearly expected her to fight him, but she let him go. He stopped before she lost consciousness and he just rested there, straddling her, hovering over her. She coughed a few times to clear her throat, to get sweet air back to her lungs, and she saw how lost he was when she found his gaze again. Killing with raikiri was less personal than strangling her to death. She hadn’t known whether he would kill her or not, so she’d taken a chance. He moved from his spot and sat down across from her, silent, brooding. She leaned up on her elbows, then she sat up. She caught sight of her hitai-ate, but she didn’t move. The screams that had punctuated the heavy silence came to a sudden end. Sasori had completed his part of the mission.

“I can’t let you go.” He looked up from his hands and she turned away, intent on retrieving her hitai-ate. She crawled across the floor, her vision still blurry, hands searching for it in the dark room. The moonlight caught the metal plate and she finally located it. “I have to take you back. You have to face justice.”

“There is no justice in the shinobi world, Kakashi,” she snorted, glancing over her shoulder at him. She secured her hitai-ate around her neck again and ran her fingertips over the tiny grooves diminishing the plate’s shine. From where she sat, she couldn’t make out his form in the dark room. The moonlight bothered her eyes. She’d used her mangekyou too much. She needed to rest her eyes. “I left because someone gave me the choice of going willingly or watching you die. I left because I didn’t want you to die. And you fucked it all up by trying to murder me. You’re fucking welcome.”

She pushed off the floor to get to her feet and she swayed for a moment. He looked at her, his eye wide, as if he’d never considered that she’d left for a good reason. She didn’t care what he did with the knowledge or how he felt about the confession. He deserved to know that he’d done the wrong thing; he deserved to have the weight of his guilt and shame crushing him. He stood and tried to reach for her, but she slapped his hand away. She remembered the first time they made love. She remembered how hesitant she’d been to let someone else into her heart. And she remembered exactly what it felt like when he aimed to kill her.

“I didn’t need you to protect me. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because you’re a fucking idiot. You aren’t a match for him, Kakashi.”

“Is he still controlling you?”

“I’m exactly where I want to be. If you were smart, you’d get out too. You’re nothing but a pawn. You’re naive, and I don’t know how you managed to be so naive, considering what I know you’ve seen and done. Konoha isn’t a village built on the power of friendship. It’s not the best village in the whole world. The Will of Fire is indoctrination. The world is a terrible place and we’re all doing terrible things.”

“We can fix this. Let me help you.”

“Take the kids and Tatewaki and get out of here. Go to the Land of That.” Kana didn’t respond to his offer of help, because she didn’t want his help, not anymore. He tried to touch her again and she glared at him with such an intensity that he recoiled. She felt along the wall for the door, then she slid it open and walked into the upstairs hallway. The lack of light did nothing to help with her blurry sight. He grabbed her before she could reach the stairs and he held her to himself. “I don’t want your help, Kakashi. Why do you always have to play the good guy?” She shoved his arms from around her and turned to face him. His sharingan was open and she found herself staring at Obito’s eye. “Can you change the world for me?”

“Change is gradual.”

“Next time, why don’t you try apologizing?”

She rejected his flimsy response and disappeared in a swirl of leaves. She left him standing in the second-floor hallway and went back to the courtyard. The kids were still there, both of them trying to drag Tatewaki away, to save the man’s life. When they saw her, they shifted into fighting stances, but she walked past them, leaving them to stare at her back. Her left ankle hurt from where she’d twisted it on the stairs, but she’d walked away with little damage. She met Sasori in the village, where she was able to see the carnage. His red secret technique was something to behold, and she’d missed it entirely. Together, they’d wiped the village off the map. And she didn’t look back.

Chapter Text

Kana turned nineteen in a small village in the Land of Rivers. It was January, two weeks after New Year's, and she celebrated in an izakaya, surrounded by drunk migrants searching for opportunities in foreign places. The awamori and bitter melon in her drink settled nicely in her stomach. The food hadn't been great, too salty for her tastes, but the drink kept her there. She felt less alone when surrounded by the rowdy crowd in the establishment. She could pretend that they gave a damn about her birthday. As she toyed with the garnish on the side of her glass, she thought about Yokosuka and the type of life Kakashi provided. The cat had liked him, and while Kakashi treated Kana poorly, that said nothing about his treatment of the cat. Her time was spent reminiscing, most of her memories evoking sadness and bitterness that paired nicely with her cocktail. She missed the family she swore she wouldn't. She missed arguments with her mother. She missed trading barbs with her brother. And then she recalled her father's guts spilling out. The memories stopped after that. Awamori and bitter melon chased the images away, burying her longing under layers of alcohol.

"Hey."

"Piss off."

"At least let me buy you a drink."

"Not interested."

She raised her glass to her mouth and he slipped into the seat beside her, squeezing in next to a muscular man with too many empty cups. She'd enjoyed the man's silent companionship. She finished off her drink and ran her tongue over her lips, chasing the taste. The guy didn't know how rejection worked, so she assumed he was another idiot. She wasn't drunk enough to deal with the repercussions of her life choices, but the pleasant buzz encouraged her to turn to the guy. He offered her a bright smile and she frowned at him, then glanced over her shoulder at his group of friends. He was a civilian. Both his choice of attire and his chakra signature gave him away. He was brave to approach her, but his bravery went with his stupidity in a dangerous way. She thought the sword on her back would discourage people, if her cloak failed. But he was an idiot. His smile reminded her of such. She gave her empty glass a shake and the bartender began preparing another drink.

"Put it all on his tab," she added, watching the man wince at the price of his mistake. She smiled at him and he sighed, but he didn't leave. She wondered what else she could add to his tab before he understood the clear message that she wanted nothing to do with him. "Look, I kill people for a living. You probably herd sheep. It's not happening. Cut your losses before I ruin your pretty face." He looked over at his friends and they motioned for him to give up, but she saw determination in his eyes.

"Actually, I was a farmer, but I lost my farm when the drought hit four years ago. Can't grow much without water. Can't pay your bills with no money. I saw a pretty lady and I thought I'd buy her a drink and maybe leave with her."

"Looks like she's not interested in you, shrimp. You're in my seat. Move." She looked up to Kisame's towering figure, then she smirked as the civilian scrambled away. The muscular man was gone, so Kisame sank into the seat beside her and watched the bartender deliver her drink. "You're drunk," he noted, his smile showing his amusement. She made a so-so motion with her hand and took the first drink of her fresh cocktail. There wasn't enough bitter melon, but she drank it anyway.

"Tipsy is a more accurate description. You're six hours late. What else was I supposed to do with my time? You'd probably pick fights with people until you got bored. That sounds exhausting."

"You're wrong, Kana. I'd never get bored."

"I'm not going anywhere tonight, unless you want to see my drunken style kenjutsu."

"I'd like to see that."

She snorted and took another drink, letting the faint taste of bitter melon roll over her tongue. He ordered whisky, which was a surprise. She thought he might opt for something more predictable and traditional, like sake. He was a great conversationalist and an amazing fighter, but he'd joined the organization to become Itachi’s partner, not hers. She'd wanted Zabuza, but Kisame had fallen into their laps. Obito had one day with the man and converted him. Obito had a way with words. No one knew what the two discussed, but it was clear that he knew who really pulled the strings, just like Kakuzu. She wondered how many more people would see the Madara side of Obito. Beside her, Kisame took a drink of his whisky and glanced at the bottles lining the shelves behind the bar. There wasn't a lot to choose from. Her drink was the bar's specialty, or she would have settled for awamori on the rocks.

"How do you like the organization?" She genuinely wanted to know, even though the question sounded silly aloud. He grinned at her, because he never wasted an opportunity to show off his pointed teeth. She'd told him he looked creepy, when she'd first met him, and he loved reminding her of the fact. Surprisingly, he was even easier to get along with than Sasori. Itachi was lucky. He could have had Kakuzu’s new partner, a weirdo from Kumogakure. "Getting along with everyone?" She knew she sounded like a parent questioning her child about his first day at the academy and he seemed to think the same thing because he chuckled.

"It's not what I expected. It's not where I would have seen myself a decade ago." He looked down at his whisky. She'd heard little about his situation in Kirigakure. He'd been incredibly loyal, until the moment he wasn't. He had his reasons for leaving. Apparently, he'd briefly met Obito in Kirigakure during the mission to murder Ao. And the rest was history. "I find honesty among the ones the world thinks of as dishonest. It's ironic. I'd have to say, at least I'm useful." She frowned at the words, wondering if he felt like a discarded tool. Maybe that's what missing nin were, at the end. She took a drink to wash the thought away. But it stayed.

"Just because Kirigakure was a cesspool doesn't mean that the whole world is a cesspool. No. That's not what I meant. Kirigakure is a cesspool though. What I meant was you don't have to feel that way about Akatsuki. You chose to be here. You're taking control of your own life. It's possible to serve no purpose at all and still live a fulfilling life. Stray dogs do it all of the time."

"You're comparing me to a stray dog? How many drinks have you had?"

"A few."

"More than enough. If I didn’t like you, you’d be dead. Let me finish this drink and we'll go."

She hummed, content to toy with the garnish that had slipped from the rim and landed in her drink. Outside, she folded her arms behind her head and let Kisame lead the way to their inn. She had their mission scroll in the kunai pouch on her thigh, but she already knew the details. At least, she knew the major points. They had to involve themselves in the Land of Grass. The political climate was already a mess—the Land of Grass never really recovered from the Third War. The land was dotted with rural villages amongst a sea of trees and bamboo forests. The Earth daimyo wanted them to assassinate the Grass daimyo so they could install a puppet government, using the daimyo’s first son, but their own mission was much more complex, or maybe it was much simpler. She was claiming Kusagakure for Akatsuki, marking the second land conquered.

They would start a civil war and destroy the government, allowing Akatsuki to get the daimyo’s second son into power, a man Obito had already visited, one Obito would control, just like he’d controlled Yagura. The second son was a trained shinobi, unlike the current daimyo. He wasn’t entirely useless. Iwagakure would lose interest once the land was in shambles, and Akatsuki would walk away with the mission payment, which was an impressive chunk of ryo, and another nation. Kusagakure was the birthday gift she wanted, and the idea came right from Obito. He saw a bigger picture but he humored her. Pein approved of the move and issued the mission because he considered himself a god, sometimes destructive, sometimes benevolent; to him, he was saving the Land of Grass from itself and lowering the likelihood of another large-scale war that would inevitably leave Amegakure in ruins.

At their inn, they went to separate rooms. There weren’t any rooms with two beds left, and though she got along with Kisame, she wasn’t sharing a bed. Once she closed the door to her room, she slipped off her sandals and removed her wakizashi, leaning the sheathed blade against the bedside table. She removed her cloak and draped it over a chair situated in the corner, and surveyed her room. She didn’t bother removing her clothes or taking a shower. She turned the overhead light off, flipped the covers back, and climbed into bed, unconcerned with how she left the bed in the morning. She dreamt of her sixth birthday party, where she'd wanted a magician, but her father took her camping and taught her how to skin a rabbit. He'd taught her a valuable lesson, and when he skinned the rabbit, his stomach split open and sharingan eyes spilled out. She jerked awake, her arms and legs flailing for a moment as she tried to gather herself. She threw an arm over her face and relaxed into the mattress, then she risked a glance at the clock. Twenty-three minutes past four in the morning and whenever she blinked she saw sharingan eyes. She extended her senses, searching for warm embers in a world filled with so many other chakra signatures. He felt like flickering flames when she found him, a fire burning in the center of the Land of Rivers. Kisame’s chakra signature drew her attention next, and she fell asleep trying to decipher samehada from Kisame, the chakra signatures almost too similar to tell them apart.

Her alarm went off at seven o’clock and she groaned at the incessant beeping. Her mouth was dry and her head hurt, but it wasn’t unbearable. She remembered most of the evening with clarity, and the rest likely didn’t matter, so she didn’t waste time trying to piece it together. After a shower and a change of clothes, she met Kisame downstairs and they had breakfast at a corner restaurant. She spent most of her time toying with her tamagoyaki, the sections of omelette perfectly cooked. Kisame had asked for salmon flakes in his eggs, his preparation including dashi. When she ate four of the small sections of her omelette, she passed the remaining, untouched pieces to Kisame, and he accepted them without complaint. She wasn’t surprised when he asked for seconds, so she sipped her juice and looked at the migrants gathered at a corner table, all of them uncharacteristically quiet. They hadn’t handled their alcohol well. Inevitably, they would move on and continue their search for a permanent place to call home. When he finished his second plate, she slid the mission scroll across the table instead of verbally briefing him. The mission scroll was very straightforward, so when his eyes moved from the scroll to her face, she smirked.

“On paper, we’re working with Iwa. In reality, we're looking out for ourselves. We’re going to poison the daimyo. It fulfills the mission, and there will be no loose ends for us. The first son will claim the title, and then the second son, the favored son, will lead the uprising.”

“It’s a mess. Is it worth it?”

“The Land of Snow was worth it.”

“So that was you.”

“Maybe.”

She shrugged, dodging the accusation without denying much of anything. She finished off her juice and pushed the empty glass away from her. The Land of Grass and resources provided by it were worth the trouble, and the village wasn’t entirely bankrupt. The proximity to Rain and the expansion into the Land of Rivers made the move worth it too. He pushed his chair away from the table, so she got to her feet. While he paid for breakfast, she waited outside, the morning heat and humidity already too much for her. Kisame wasn't on the greatest mission for him, but Obito stated Itachi needed a solo mission, one the man wouldn't disclose. If Kisame knew about the mission details, he was tight-lipped. If something did go wrong, she had someone with her. She'd anticipated completing the mission alone. The last-minute addition was nice. She didn't spend all of her birthday alone. When Kisame joined her outside, they started the trek to the capital of the Land of Grass, Bokusou, in the southern part of the nation. As they walked, she stared at the wrapped sword on his back, not bothering to hide her obvious interest. They'd never talked about his sword, and she'd never seen it in action, but the sentient sword bothered her. The exchange of chakra was extremely unique. Sword and man blurred together.

"You don't like my sword?"

"It's eerie. Your chakra signature is almost echoed. In battle, I might be unable to tell you apart."

"I've never heard that before." He reached for the hilt of his blade, then he pulled his hand away. She stopped staring at the wrapped sword and he chuckled. "It's not going to attack you, unless you want to spar. I haven't had a good spar in a while."

She gave him a flat look because he didn't hold back. He worked well with Itachi because of mutual respect. She didn't think he respected her enough not to flay her alive. She used her mangekyou sparingly after the mission in the Land of This. Fatigue and blurriness set in and not every fight would end in choking and conversation. They had time, but she chose to ignore his offer. The sun wasn’t helping her headache. As they passed into the Land of Rain, she prepared for the downpours promised by dark clouds overtaking the sky. The thought of another successful mission kept her moving, even as the memories of the izakaya resurfaced. For some reason, she wondered if Kakashi had remembered her birthday. It was a wasted thought.

Chapter Text

“You’re late.”

“Something came up.”

His chakra was scorching, his anger communicated so well with the killing intent oozing between the cracks in his veneer. Before she could stand, he gripped her upper arm and tugged her from the stool, half dragging her from the noodle shop. She tried yanking her arm free, but he tightened his grip. She wondered if he meant to leave a bruise in the shape of his hand, because he manhandled her with little regard. Sighing through her nose, she chose to hurry her steps to keep up with him. Whatever he was going through, she had the misfortune of being with him. He likely expected her to try and talk him through his feelings, which was laughable at best. She fought hard against her own feelings, so she had no business prying, in some effort to save him from himself. When she tired of his bruising grip, she kicked his ankle and he growled at her. Whether she wanted to broach the subject or not, she had little choice. Once the restaurants and shops were out of view, he released his hold on her and she scowled as she massaged her sore shoulder. His lack of punctuality had something to do with his mood, but he offered her nothing, in terms of conversation. He couldn’t expect her to guess. He looked like he wanted to yell at her, and she regretted accepting the mission from Pein. She’d had the choice to accompany Kakuzu on a bounty mission, and she should have taken it, whether he went berserk and killed her or not.

“What happened in the Land of This?” He must have thought she would lie to him, because he rounded on her and glared at her. She maintained eye contact as she shrugged her shoulders, feigning a lack of understanding. He tried reaching for her arm again, but she slapped his hand away. She didn’t want to fight him, but if he touched her again, she planned on kicking his ass. Frustration turned to cold anger, the killing intent no longer peeking through the cracks. His sudden calm bothered her more than his hot temper. “Why didn’t you tell me Kakashi was there?”

“It didn’t matter. The mission was a success. Are you jealous?” She arched a brow and he scoffed at her, the idea a joke to him. Sasori couldn’t have given her away because he wasn’t present, which left her with few options. If he expected reassurances, she wasn’t going to deliver. She moved her arm, testing her shoulder, and she thought she saw regret, but he didn’t apologize. “Do you still have your weird rivalry with Kakashi? Is this something you never grew out of? You’re twenty-two.” He didn’t appreciate the words, but she didn’t care. His jealousy was unwarranted. Nothing had happened. She’d made it clear that Kakashi had made an unforgivable mistake. She eyed Obito for a moment, wondering if that disgusting spy of his had fed him information. But maybe it wasn’t Zetsu at all. “You spied on him again, didn’t you?”

“You told him about me.”

“I didn’t. He’s an idiot. He doesn’t know who you are, and I’m never telling him.”

“He plans on saving you.”

“Fine. If you want to have this discussion in the middle of the road, I’m ready. Why do you keep spying on him? You can’t let him go. He needs to suffer for his sins, but you keep going back. How often do you spy on him, hm? Do you like staring through his window? He’s a good-looking guy, so I can’t blame you.”

She wasn’t surprised when he hit her, but the closed fist was unexpected. She ran her tongue over the inside of her cheek, tracing over the bleeding wound. When he’d hit her, she’d bitten down on her cheek. He didn’t try to hit her again, so she took a moment to consider her options. Her silent acceptance was unexpected. She chose to shove his shoulders, to push him back, to keep pushing him back. He pressed down on the forming bruise on her arm and she tried kneeing him in the groin, but he shoved her knee aside. They were attracting too much attention, but she didn’t care. He cared. She shouldn’t have pressed him on his opinion of Kakashi, not when she knew there was something there, something he refused to admit. He was hopeless. And she was an idiot. She huffed a laugh, then turned on her heel to retrieve her belongings from the inn. She could complete the mission without him. She didn’t need someone holding her hand. She didn’t need anyone. Her anger told her those things, and she held the anger close to her heart, setting fire to her insides. His hand touched her shoulder and she rounded and kicked him in the side. The second hit passed right through him. She’d been aiming for his mask.

“I’m not fighting you here. So either we take this outside of the village or you drag me to kamui. I’m not picky.”

“You say that like you actually stand a chance against me.”

“Mm. You know arrogance is unbecoming.”

“It’s not really arrogance when it’s true.”

The moment they were in kamui, she gathered fire to her right fist and punched him in the gut. First strike went to her, and she dodged him when he swiped at her, quickly putting some distance between them. Kamui was exactly how she remembered it, and she saw the bloodstain on the stone from their last fight, their current fight promising more of the same. She couldn’t tell if he fought with jealousy or unfounded anger, but she knew better than to taunt him, because they were having a tame spar compared to their last major fight. And then he sent a fireball at her face and she saw nothing but the red of her own anger. Maybe she deserved it, since she’d used ninjutsu first. The fire crashed into her earth wall and flew in all directions, the flames fizzling out in the air. He surprised her before she had the chance to make the next move. He finished her hand seals for her and tried striking her with a perfect copy of her first attack, but she blocked, the sleeve of her cloak catching fire. She removed her wakizashi, then tossed her cloak aside, letting the fire slowly consume it. He dodged the blows she made with her blade, even though he could have let the blade pass right through him. She couldn’t tell if they were really fighting or just using one another to let off steam. She didn’t stop to ask.

He punched her in the stomach and she disappeared in a puff of smoke. He laughed at her shadow clone and she threw three shuriken at his back. He let the shuriken hit him and then pulled them out, one by one. Whatever balance existed between them was gone. They traded fire attacks, copying one another halfway through hand seals, ducking and dodging, hiding behind earth walls that shook and cracked with every hit. Ninjutsu tried to transform the bland landscape, bringing fire, earth, and lightning. The lightning reminded her too much of Kakashi. She recalled the feel of the chakra burning her palm and how he’d tried to kill her again. Earth was weak against lightning. Fire was pointless. She didn’t know why he used lightning, except that he wanted her to remember the first time it had almost killed her. She hesitated too long, too caught up in her own anxiety to do much more than watch the lightning strike approach her. A wall of lightning absorbed the attack, one she didn’t create. Lightning release had done more than scar her physically. The attacks stopped, not that she would have blocked them or countered them. What they had was toxic. All she knew was toxic.

“I didn’t think you’d freeze up.”

“I didn’t freeze up!”

“Your right hand is shaking.”

She hadn’t noticed at all. Her right hand and her fingers trembled, phantom pain traveling up her arm. It wasn’t raikiri. It wasn’t Kakashi. She pressed her palms over her eyes, in some attempt to chase the memories away. She didn’t expect Obito to comfort her, so she wasn’t disappointed when he didn’t approach her. It was the second time she could have died because of lightning. The last time had been nothing, fear abated by the fact that she’d had an easy exit. She’d had no clone to switch places with. She growled in frustration, all of her anger centered on herself. She sent a fireball out into kamui, following it with another and another, her chakra slowly draining away. Her hand had stopped shaking. The phantom pain had ended. Obito made noise as he approached her, but she still regarded him with suspicion. He’d saved her life. Maybe it had been about anger. Maybe it had been a spar gone too far. It was hard to tell. She flinched when he touched her.

“You thought I was going to kill you.” She didn’t know what to say. Lightning release reminded her of Kakashi, so it had been unexpected and unwelcome. Obito had been angry. She had been angry. She couldn’t tell if she fought to kill him or cripple him or teach him a lesson. She didn’t know his driving reason for trading blows. “I was mad. I wasn’t going to murder you. I don’t like you insinuating that I have feelings for Kakashi.”

The mask hid his facial expressions, but she didn’t try to remove it. She still tasted blood on her tongue from the first time he’d hit her. She’d said the wrong thing. She was so far gone that she blamed herself for the whole fight. Her mother told her that men were useless pigs, the most important lesson she ever learned from the woman, one that she carried with her to that day. He tried to drag her into a conversation, but she answered with silence, unwilling to speak to him. Maybe if she’d severely injured him, she would have felt better about how their fight had ended. Maybe it was simply about her own failures. He’d spared her. He hadn’t saved her at all. There was a difference she recognized and accepted. When he tried speaking to her again, he focused on their mission, but she let her mind wander. She didn’t give a damn about the mission. Robbing a merchant caravan wasn’t exciting. It didn’t need careful planning. She planned on killing everyone and moving on. He’d only invited himself along because he’d wanted to confront her, and he wasn’t taking the hint to fuck off and leave her alone. She couldn’t think straight with him rattling on, and it frustrated her. It wasn’t his Tobi persona that aggravated her. Right then, she couldn’t stand him.

“I don’t give a fuck about the mission, Obito. Please shut up.”

“You’re going to make this difficult, aren’t you?”

“And if I do? What are you going to do? Are you going to punch me again?”

“I was mad, Kana, and you’re doing a good job of making me mad again.”

Kana glared at him, but he ignored her. Suddenly, he was the silent one, and she was searching for conversation. When they reached the inn, she kept walking. He had to grab her arm and drag her into the building, while she hissed expletives at him under her breath. She hoped the bathroom had a bathtub so she could drown him in it. Her poor attitude only served to worsen his mood. The owner tried speaking to her, but she turned away from the man, leaving Tobi to explain that it was a woman thing. Kana tried walking out, but Obito grabbed her arm again and dragged her along, his hand fitting perfectly over the bruise on her upper arm. He shoved her into the bedroom and slammed the door shut behind them. They were going to have an argument, something different than trading physical blows; they meant to exchange verbal ones. She threw her sandals at him though, so he threw them right back at her. She contemplated throwing shuriken, even if they ruined the paint and chipped the wall. He shoved her into a seated position on the bed and she glared up at him as he tried to rein in his own temper. She knew if he tried to talk about the mission again, she would snap and they would end up right back in kamui, trading blows.

"He still talks to me. It's been years."

"He liked to moan your name too. It was great for my self-esteem."

"He moaned my name?"

"Yeah, he did." She picked at her chipped nail polish to distance herself from her own feelings, and he sat down beside her, drawing her attention from her plum polish to his orange mask. She'd never imagined having the conversation they were having. There was no anger in his slouched posture. And calmly talking about the subject dispersed her own remnants of anger. "I heard him say it once. At the beginning, he didn't see me at all. It was pathetic. But I can't say much, considering he filled the role of Kaisei in my life."

"Do you think of Kakashi when we're having sex?"

"No. Do you still think of Rin?"

"No." He removed the mask, then he ran a hand over his face. She didn't know how he felt about the admission. He looked tired, the bone-deep weariness she recognized in herself. "This doesn't change anything." Things changed sometimes, but she kept her mouth closed. He needed to work through his emotions without her picking him apart. "I refuse to forgive him." And she wondered if he said the words for her or for himself. She tried to imagine a happy ending for them, but it never worked out. They died. It was always a miserable way to go. He looked to her, as if he expected her to lecture him on forgiveness, when she battled with it herself.

"Just because you choose not to forgive him doesn't mean your feelings for him don't exist. I know Tsuki no Me means the world to you, but you found room in your shriveled up heart for me." He didn't appreciate her insult, as evidenced by his narrowed eyes, so her attempt at humor had failed. She chose to lean against his side and he eventually looped an arm around her. "I'm done talking about your feelings for that idiot. What you do with this realization is up to you. And before you bring up the fucking mission again, I'm over that too."

He turned her head to see her left cheek in the light, where he found an ugly red mark against her pale skin. He brushed his fingers over it and she hissed at the contact, lightly shoving his hand away from her face. She chose to call their fight a spar, chose to accept that every hit was expected. It stopped her from blaming herself. She justified the fact that he'd punched her by saying she'd punched him too. Whatever helped her sleep at night. He didn't stop her when she kissed his cheek, her lips barely brushing over his scars; he didn't stop her when her hand slid up his thigh, reaching for him. Because she buried everything in sex. Her hurt. Her confusion. Her uncertainty. He let her hide in kisses and caresses, and he apologized in the way he removed her clothes. Sex distracted her, stealing her away from deeper thoughts best left unexplored. She wasn't some mentally scarred shadow of her former self. She was fine. His hands dug into her hips, fingertips leaving marks behind. And it was fine. Because love made it fine.

Chapter Text

As she stared at the foggy morning outside of their window, she tried to process the fact that he was still present, his arm draped over her, his breath warm and steady against the nape of her neck. Idly, she traced her index finger over a small scar on his right hand. It was the only scar on his hand, and without the angle and the rising sun, she would have missed it entirely. That slim line reminded her that he wasn't invincible. Every scar on his body echoed the same. They lived on borrowed time. When his breathing changed, she laced their fingers together and he squeezed her hand, marking the end of her quiet morning and all of the thoughts she chose not to chase.

"How long have you been awake?" He leaned up on his left elbow to check the clock on the nightstand, then he sighed. As a child, he'd hated early mornings, but years of conditioning kept him going. Kana pressed a kiss to the scar on his hand and he kissed her bare shoulder. "It was a training accident," he said, as if he knew about her curiosity. She hummed. "It wasn't supposed to scar, but I picked at the scab. Rin yelled at me for it." They didn't talk about her, so Kana waited for him to change the subject. But he didn’t. Silence stretched on, where he relived that time in his childhood, where she tried to distract him with another kiss to his scar.

“Kaisei made me go to the hospital a lot. I don’t like them. They smell like bleach and death.” He snorted at her words, so she pinched the back of his hand. She thought of her initial reaction when she’d received the news that Kaisei had died. She’d thanked the nameless chunin and walked home alone. “I wanted to be a medic,” she admitted, embarrassed. He pressed another kiss to her shoulder. She’d strived for her father’s approval.

“I wanted to be Hokage.”

“Why?”

“An orphan’s dream. The whole village would have recognized me.”

“Now the world will recognize you.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore. Who I am doesn’t matter anymore. Tobi. Madara. Obito.” She turned to face him and brushed a hand over his cheek. She didn’t know what to say to someone facing an identity crisis. His hand went to her hip and he stole a kiss from her. “Do you still want to be a medic?” He kissed her again and closed the distance between their bodies by dragging her closer. Their lips met twice before she could admit to herself that her childhood dream meant almost nothing to her. “I can teach you what I know,” he offered, as if trying to tempt her. She wrinkled her nose and he smiled at her expression.

“Mm, it doesn’t matter anymore,” she replied, her voice soft. He looked between her eyes and her mouth, so she kissed him again and lightly nudged him onto his back. His hand went from her hip to her ass and he squeezed. “What else can you teach me?" She was surprised to see color in his cheeks, so she lightly swatted his chest. "I wasn't flirting, but now I'm interested. What's your secret fetish?"

"You."

"Clever."

"I thought so." He smirked at her and she curled up next to him. She placed her hand over his heart and focused on his chakra, feeling it circulate. His heart was still different. When she opened her eyes, she looked up at him. "I could teach you wind release." She made a face that had him chuckling. She was terrible with wind release, but the offer was appealing. "It's what you should have used in our fight."

"I've been getting by with earth and fire."

"I'd feel better if you mastered wind release."

"You're just hoping I kill Kakashi," she said, snorting. He made a so-so motion with his hand and she kissed his cheek. She left a trail of kisses, from his cheek to his chest, then she slid her left hand down his body. "Should I start calling you sensei?" He rolled his eyes at her and she laughed, even as she fondled him. His attention shifted from her face to her breasts, and she felt him squeeze her ass again. "Make me cum, then we'll talk."

She captured his lips for another brief kiss, then she stroked him, trying to get him hard. He tangled his fingers in her hair and she pushed the sheets back to give herself room to straddle him. His offer had fallen to the back of her mind, her focus on enjoying the time they had together. Their time was always limited. He released his hold on her hair, fingers gliding through the strands, then he pressed his hands to her breasts, lightly squeezing them, fingertips circling her nipples. She requested he squeeze her harder, so his hands were tight on her breasts and she rolled her hips, even though his hand hadn’t slipped between her legs. He was half hard when she finally took one of his hands and pressed his fingers to her clit. His touch was light, teasing, so when he pressed down on her clit, she rolled her hips again and her body tingled, the feel of his touch making her throw her head back. When he was finally hard, she guided him into her, slowly lowering herself down onto him until she took all of him. His hands went to her hips and he squeezed, his fingers digging into her skin. As she moved, he thrust up to meet her, the motion and the feel of him inside of her making her throw her head back again. He hit a spot that had her struggling to find it over and over again.

“Touch me,” she requested, the words buried between harsh breaths. He went from watching his cock slip in and out of her to rubbing her clit. His touch was rough and the motion was fast. “Yes,” she moaned, her body twitching at the feel. He stopped rubbing her clit to grip her hips and thrust upwards to meet her and she squeezed her own breasts. “Obito,” she whispered, repeating his name. He groaned at the sound of it on her lips, the way she sang for him. “I’m close,” she warned him, her left hand already moving to rub her clit. His thrusts were hard and fast, every move of his hips burying him in her.

“Me too,” he promised her, just as lost in the pleasure. She cried out as she came, his name all she could repeat, and he carried her through her orgasm with more thrusts. She panted as she tried to keep moving, but he tightened his grip on her hips and thrust a few more times. He came with a sharp inhale and a long groan of her name, then they stopped moving and she simply enjoyed the feel of him inside of her. “You’re beautiful,” he sighed, releasing her hips to squeeze her breasts once more. She rolled her eyes at the compliment.

“You’re only saying that because you came.” She moved from atop him and settled beside him, very aware of the feel of his cum. Since they were leaving, she didn’t care about the sheets. The thought of showering fell away as he kissed her.

“I mean it. I think you’re beautiful,” he repeated, the arm around her allowing him to rub her back. She never thought of herself as beautiful, so the compliment had her blushing. She kissed his chest.

“I think you’re handsome. No, don’t snort. I mean it too. I like your scars,” she assured him, reaching up to touch the right side of his face. He frowned at her, but she brushed her fingertips over his face. His scars were a part of him, just like her scars were a part of her. “Can we forget the mission?” He pinched her ass and she jerked away from his fingers. The answer was a silent one. No, they couldn’t forget the mission, even if she thought it was boring and a waste of their time. Robbing the merchant caravan meant adding money to their stash, and money kept them going, just like their reputation continued to grow. “Pft. Fine. And yes, I accept your offer to help me improve my wind release, but only because you sound good moaning my name, sensei.”

“The first rule is that you never call me that again.”

“I could call you that while you’re fucking me.”

“Maybe.”

“I’m hot for my teacher.”

“Too far. Go take a shower. I want to leave in thirty minutes.” He pinched her ass again and she lightly slapped his stomach. She turned away from him and sat up on the edge of the bed. Stretching her arms above her head, a content moan slipped between her lips and she felt his hand run along her spine. She didn’t let his touch distract her. “Hurry up,” he reminded her. She flipped him off before she closed the bathroom door.

The caravan was traveling from the northwestern border of the Land of Fire, on the route from Yugakure to Konohagakure. With Yugakure’s demilitarization, she wasn’t surprised to find out that Konoha shinobi were escorting the line of wagons. She felt their chakra signatures before the group crossed the border into Fire. The sheer number of chakra signatures had caught her attention. She recognized Hayate’s chakra signature, and she thought she recognized Gai’s, but she hadn’t spent enough time with the man to be certain. She counted thirty-two chakra signatures, four of them belonging to shinobi. She couldn’t identify the remaining two shinobi, but their signatures were ones she’d felt around Konoha. Hayate was an outstanding shinobi, as he’d proven, so she focused on his chakra signature. His kenjutsu was outstanding, but Tatewaki was easily superior. She hadn’t fought Hayate since the time they were on the same ANBU team. His numerous moves were impressive, one of which she’d never successfully blocked. Though she knew she should leave him to Obito, she still tracked his movements. They were only hours apart, meaning they would clash before nightfall.

“There are thirty-two people in the merchant caravan, four of which are shinobi. I believe Gekko Hayate and Might Gai are among them. Hayate is known for his mastery of the transparent technique. His chakra signature is masked to the point I can’t feel it, but its weakness is the sharingan. Gai is a master of taijutsu, and he’s not one to underestimate.”

“And the other two?”

“One is a fire release user and the other is a water release user. I don’t recognize their signatures well enough, so I didn’t spend time with them. I think I should take Hayate, unless you think you’re better with a sword.”

“I can hold my own in a fight. I’ve had practice with a multitude of weapons. If you want to fight him, you could just say that. You insisted on testing your strength with Tatewaki. Just try not to get injured. I’m your partner for this, not your doctor.”

“Oh fuck you. Fine,” she huffed, turning her head away so he couldn’t see her pissed off expression. She heard him chuckle, but she still refused to look at him. Instead, her hand went to her thigh so she could double check that she had her kunai pouch beneath her cloak. “If I die, I’m sure you’ll spend the rest of your life mourning me. And if you die, I’ll have to find someone else to warm my bed. The search would be exhausting,” she teased, allowing him to see her smile. He knocked his shoulder against her and she ended up taking a few steps to the side to regain her balance.

“I can imagine, since you’re so picky. You’d probably find someone at my funeral.”

“Maybe. You know, if I die, you can be with Kakashi.” He shoved her harder that time and she fell into a bush. She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. He was nice enough to stop and watch her struggle to disentangle herself from the thorn bush. Luckily, she hadn’t been stabbed. The more she struggled, the more she sank into the bush. Obito took pity on her and yanked her by her hands, tugging her from the ruined bush. She took a few minutes to pick the thorns from her cloak. “You’re such a dick.” His eye crinkled, so she knew he was smiling beneath his mask. Without warning, he feigned a gasp, and she knew he’d adopted his Tobi persona just to piss her off.

“But Kana-chan, Tobi is a good boy!”

Chapter Text

She swiped at his neck, but Hayate pulled back and raised his blade, blocking the tip of her wakizashi from piercing his throat. Before she recovered from the swing, he tried stabbing her in the side, but she jerked away. His blade still cut a line through her cloak, so she glared at him. She remembered days spent sparring, both of them trying to wield blades bigger than themselves. He’d improved, but she wasn’t surprised. When Hayate put his heart and mind into something, he never failed. She didn’t like fighting him. She thought it would be a repeat of old times, but she just thought of time spent around a campfire, both of them exhausted but unable to sleep. He’d told her about Yugao, how he swore she was going to be the woman he married. And every swipe and thrust of her blade meant to destroy that future. She knew when he made two shadow clones that she had no choice but to skip to the second step of her plan. He moved so fast that she saw nothing but after images. She needed her sharingan to pinpoint his location, but the three positions he had to strike her left her with no option. At the back of the caravan, Obito had engaged Genma and Gai, both of them working together flawlessly. The former members of Team Choza showed off their strength that day. She glanced at the wagon to her left, then she blocked one blow. As the two shadow clones tried to impale her, she blew the wagon up, sending them flying, the shadow clones popping out of existence. He slammed into a tree and she landed hard on her back and slid across the ground. Her ears rang and her lungs ached. The explosion had been too close. She’d knocked her head off the ground and everything blurred together.

Ebisu, her second opponent, immediately ran to check on Hayate, leaving her to slowly push herself to a seated position. She forced herself to her hands and knees, then she pushed off the ground to get to her feet. Her cloak was singed, and blood ran from an injury on the back of her head, but she’d survived. Across from her, Hayate had fallen onto his ass, his back against the tree he’d hit. He kept pointing to his chest. The blunt force trauma must have done more damage. Though she was slow to regain her breath, she’d recovered better. She turned to check on Obito, and she saw Gai dragging Genma away, even as the man attacked with senbon. Her decision to check on Obito was a poor one. Ebisu stabbed a kunai into her back and she swung around with a fist, hitting him in the jaw. They devolved into a fist fight, where she backed up to put more distance between them. She wasn’t expecting fire jutsu. The earth wall she created cracked, a chunk breaking off. She felt the heat as the chunk of earth slammed into her chest and knocked her over the cliff. She caught the edge of the cliff with her left hand and tried to pull herself up, but Ebisu stepped on her fingers. She made eye contact, but it was too late. She killed him, but the edge of the cliff snapped and sent her into the Aoi River. She thought she heard her name, then she saw trees burst from the ground. It was the last thing she saw as the river swallowed her.

She swallowed a mouthful of cool water as she struggled to fight her way to the surface. The water moved fast over the riverbed, the current dragging her down. She was slammed into rocks that littered the river, the impacts stealing any oxygen she managed to catch. She had her kunai pouch, so she grabbed a kunai with her shaking right hand and tried to stab the shore. But she dipped under the water and lost her grip on the kunai. Slamming into another rock, she inhaled water and fought her way to the surface to try and expel the water. The next time she hit a rock, the current trapped her against it, so she latched onto the rock and pulled herself out of the water. Her vision was blurry, and she couldn’t tell if it was because of her sharingan or the head injury. Her ears no longer rang, but she heard nothing over the roaring water. She managed to balance on the rock, and hopped from the stone to dry land, where she collapsed onto her side and finished choking up water. She lay there, trying to focus long enough to feel for chakra signatures. She sensed Hayate, proving that the man was still alive. Genma was harder to pinpoint, and his chakra signature flickered like a flame. Gai was absent, but it didn’t mean he was dead. She tried to tell, but her concentration slipped and her eyes closed. She moaned in pain as she tried to move, all of her muscles protesting. The river had been unforgiving, and the explosion had already made moving difficult. She needed to sit up, but she only managed to roll onto her back, where she had a beautiful view of the moon in the twilight.

Chakra exhaustion wasn’t an issue, so she summoned two of her mountain lions. One lion pressed against her side, staying with her to guard her, while she sent the second to locate Obito. Her summon helped her sit up, though she still leaned back on her elbows. Her back ached and burned, and the ground was stained with blood. She wanted to hear that they’d successfully completed the mission. When she couldn’t take being reclined at that angle, she went back to lying on her back. Her summons couldn’t vocalize anything, but they understood her, so she brushed a hand along her summon’s back. Staying there wasn’t an option. The lion grabbed the front of Kana’s tattered cloak in her mouth and tugged the woman into a seated position that had her crying out in pain. She felt as if she’d bruised every part of her body. She hoped she’d killed Ebisu, the disgusting piece of shit. She’d never liked him.

“I think we need to move, Aimi.” She spoke to her lion, Aimi, but she didn’t move. Her body screamed of exhaustion. The river had swallowed all of her strength. “Just help me turn over. I can get on my hands and knees,” she instructed, allowing Aimi to shove her side until she turned over onto her stomach. Getting up sounded simple, but it wasn’t that easy. Her right side and her lower back was nothing but excruciating pain. Ebisu had likely hit her right kidney, explaining the blood on the ground. But it could have easily been a result of her impact after the explosion; he could have missed her kidney altogether. “I did not abandon everything to die by this fucking river,” she ranted, using her own anger to push herself.

On her hands and knees, she forced herself up enough to sit down on a boulder by the river. She removed her cloak and tied it around her midsection to apply pressure to her injury, securing it by knotting the sleeves together. When she focused on chakra signatures, she found warm embers in the distance, but her head hurt too much to focus on it. She had the general direction, so she went upstream, hoping to find him by the river, rather than on the cliff. The few times she stumbled, Aimi helped her along. She gritted her teeth, every move jarring her back, but she didn’t stop. When she heard her other summon, Arata, she walked a little faster, sure that he was in the canyon with her, hoping that he’d found Obito. Obito had told her not to get injured; Obito had told her to stick to the plan. He’d never said anything about falling off the cliff. Aimi kept urging her on, tugging on her cloak, half-dragging her at some point. She saw Obito in the distance and Arata returned to her, where her summons met and disappeared in puffs of smoke. Obito placed a hand on her cheek and she touched his torn cloak. They both looked terrible. She remembered watching twisted trees burst into existence. He’d used wood release.

“Are they dead?”

“Or dying. Your hair is matting with blood. You weren’t supposed to be near the wagon when you triggered the explosive tags, and you fell off a cliff. I told you I wasn’t going to be your doctor, Kana.”

“My head injury isn’t the problem. I have kidney damage and I don’t know if Ebisu stabbed it or if it was blunt force trauma, but it hurts like a bitch.” He reached for the knot on her Akatsuki cloak and she placed her hands over his, stopping him. “I need to keep pressure on it until you can look at it. I really don’t want to bleed to death in this shitty place.” He frowned, then he drew her into his arms and they vanished into kamui, where she was greeted with chests of ryo and her broken wakizashi. She nudged one of the chests with her foot and heard the rattling of money. “At least something good came out of this,” she mumbled. He gave her a look that silenced her, so she glared down at her feet. She hated that she saw anger in his eyes, but there was something beyond the anger that she refused to identify.

When they left kamui, she didn't recognize their new surroundings. She turned away from the stone table and saw rows of sharingan eyes, all of them suspended in liquid. Her stomach rolled at the thought of Obito ripping the eyes out. The way he'd arranged them showed that he'd taken his time, and some bore labels with names on them. When she found her father's eyes, she turned her back to the wall and leaned against the table. Nothing about the display changed the way she felt about Obito. He'd forced her hand and destroyed her life, and she was incredibly stupid for falling in love with him. He touched her back and she cried out in pain, pulling away from his touch. The motion hurt her just as much as his touch. She let him undo the knot on her cloak and he peeled the fabric away, causing more bleeding. She looked down at the drops on the ground.

"You're going to have to unzip your top, just to the waist." She looked around the room and reached out with her chakra. Her chakra pinpointed far too many chakra signatures, but her throbbing head made her lose control. They weren't alone. Her fingers hovered over the zipper of her top. "You're choosing modesty now?" She glared over her shoulder and pulled the zipper down, exposing her chest and back. "He didn't hit your kidney, but the wound is still bad. Does this hurt?" He pressed on her back and she clenched her fists.

"Yes it hurts! Stop pressing down!"

"You wouldn't be in this mess, if you didn't decide to break from the plan."

"There was no other way to stop Hayate. I wasn't getting skewered. Stop pressing down, you dick!"

"Your right kidney is bruised, and you need stitches for the stab wound. Your head just needs a bandage."

He had her sit down on the stone table while he stood behind her and started working. Every touch hurt her. By the time he'd finished the stitches, her jaw ached from how hard she'd gritted her teeth. She saw dirty cotton from where he'd cleaned the wound. The time she'd spent in the water and on the ground hadn't helped her. His hand moved along her spine and she tensed, anticipating more pain. Instead, his arms circled around her, and he held her. Somehow, she felt as if the hug bared too much of themselves. There was a bandage on her back and he'd cleaned her head wound, marking him as her doctor again. When she got to her feet, she hugged him and he avoided her middle and lower back. She wanted to find out more about the chakra signatures below their feet, but she needed rest. With the successful completion of the mission, she had plenty of time.

"I thought I lost you." He clearly felt awkward admitting it, but she gave him credit for choking the words out. She leaned in to capture his lips, silencing anything else he'd wanted to say. They'd never had an honest conversation about how they felt, because there had never been a need. She chewed on the inside of her bottom lip, weighing the words.

"Yeah. I wasn't sure if I'd make it," she mumbled, speaking thoughts she'd shoved aside. Survival had been her goal though, and she'd saved herself from the river. "It would have been a stupid way to die," she joked, saving the conversation by not trying to analyze how she felt thinking she'd never see him again. He made a noise in agreement. She was failing, and she didn't want to fail.

"That's not what you wanted to say. You always say whatever you feel like saying. You have a terrible filter."

"Half of what I say makes you furious, but fine. I didn't want to die without telling you I'm in love with you."

He tensed and she felt him disconnect. Without his mask, he looked as if he'd wiped every emotion from his face, though she saw anxiety in the way he released his hold on her. He gathered the used first aid items and sealed them away for disposal, and she watched him, wondering if she'd said the wrong thing. They'd never said the words, but she'd assumed. She was embarrassed at being the first to confess, especially when he reacted poorly. She remembered her top and turned away to cover herself. She zipped up the top part of her romper in silence. The humiliation was enough on its own. He put his mask back on and he took her back to kamui, where the silence persisted. She thought they would return to the river, but he made no move to leave the pocket dimension, and she couldn't leave on her own. With no hesitation, she lowered herself to the concrete. She took the broken remains of her wakizashi and did a practice swing, but it was pointless. She threw the blade from the concrete slab they were on and listened to it clatter when it connected with another section of concrete. She'd had the blade for years, and it had served her well.

"I don't know why you're trying to murder me with awkward silence, but it's getting old."

"You're in love with me?"

"I'm an idiot."

"Clearly." She hadn't expected a good reaction from him. They wanted one another, but maybe they wanted one another for different reasons. She winced as she stretched her legs out, the pain drawing her from focusing on his frenzied chakra signature. He didn't need to confess to her. She was tired and in pain. "You're in love with me," he repeated, as if he were parroting her. He wasn't processing it well. She didn't know what to say to him, and he clearly couldn't think straight.

"Look, can we get the fuck out of here? I'm not in the best shape right now and I don't have time for your existential crisis," she sighed, trying to draw him out of his thoughts. When that didn't work, she forced herself up and wrapped her arms around him, ending his pacing. He relaxed in her arms, though it took him too long. "Please stop. I'm not asking you to unpack all of your baggage and tell me that you're in love with me too. You heard what I said and that's enough. It's alright."

"Isn't that what you want?"

"I want to get out of here."

"We'll leave when I feel like leaving."

"I don't have the energy for your shit right now, Obito."

"You're asking for too much," he frowned, not moving away from her. She rested her head against his shoulder and his hands went to her hips. He clearly meant to tear her down with the words but she saw through him. He was fighting against how he felt and it was his prerogative. She would fight with him another time, when she wasn't dead on her feet. "I hurt you. All I do is hurt you. You're insane."

"Sanity is overrated," she quipped, the words drawing a chuckle from him. He was right. He hurt her, over and over again. But there were always good times between them, times when they weren't at each other's throats. She saw the good in him. "I don't know what else to say," she admitted, shrugging. She'd already shared her opinion of herself. Only an idiot would love him. The things he'd done, the things he would do, were unforgivable. And she forgave him anyway.

"It won't get any better, Kana."

"I already told you that I want you as you are."

"I can be volatile."

"And I can be a raging bitch."

"Most of the time," he mumbled. She lightly kicked his ankle and he sighed. His confession was in the way he moved his mask to kiss her. And she echoed the sentiment by slapping his ass.

Chapter Text

His chakra spoke of his somber mood. The way it circulated was slow, his lightning nature like a thousand tiny shocks throughout his network. He looked pitiful, standing in the rain, staring at names etched into the memorial stone. Beside her, Obito swung his legs back and forth, as if he weren't watching the pathetic scene. Kana had never bothered with that part of Kakashi’s life; she had never pried information from him, never tried to psychoanalyze him. Maybe she should have broached the subject. Maybe she should have cared about his pain, not just the pleasure he provided. Frowning, she drummed her fingers on her thighs, trying to muster the courage to walk away. The mission took priority. Running into him had been a coincidence, but following him had been a choice. As the silence stretched on, she let her eyes drift from Kakashi to Obito. She signed key words to him. Stay. Go. Sad. Quiet. Obito shrugged his shoulders and signed in response. Wait. Speak. She sighed, and her attention returned to Kakashi. One hour had already passed and Kakashi showed no desire to leave. When Kakashi apologized to the man seated next to her, she couldn't help but look at Obito. His mask blocked her view, but she could imagine him glaring and scowling, spitting fire in the following silence. Obito signed once more. Rin.

Kana looked at the ground, silently contemplating giving away their position. As if he could read her mind, Obito placed a hand over her right hand, signaling for her to stay, to wait. When Kakashi said her name, her heart ached, even as she scowled at the soaked man. After the apology, Kakashi talked about their last meeting and his own confusion, then he asked Obito what he should do. It took listening to him to realize that he hadn’t included her presence in his mission report. That was unlike him. The quiet confession reminded her of the night of the massacre. Kakashi had gone after her with no hesitation. He should have alerted someone. He’d tried to protect her. He apologized to her too, as if apologizing to a rock would earn him her forgiveness. She felt Obito’s fingers along her wrist, a silent reminder that Kakashi deserved to spend the rest of his life begging for forgiveness. She and Obito knew how to hold onto hatred. But the pitiful display had her hurting too. Kana lightly knocked her knee against Obito’s and signed at him once more. Stay. Go. Sad. The repetition earned her a different result. Down. She wrinkled her nose and looked down at the wet grass below them, then flashed one sign. You. He didn’t respond, so she signed it a second time. Obito stopped concealing his chakra signature and she saw Kakashi tense. She dropped from the branch and he followed her to the edge of the trees, then she proceeded alone.

“So it’s the same person.” He didn’t turn to her as she approached him, but she knew he was aware and alert. She glanced back at Obito, but he remained at the treeline, a silent spectator to her reunion with Kakashi. “If you’re here, you’re here for a reason, and it isn’t to see me,” he frowned, turning his head to see her. She stopped beside him and eyed the memorial stone. Some people found comfort there, but she’d never seen the appeal of baring herself to a rock. She didn’t believe that the dead watched over them. They ascended to the pure land or they burned in the depths of hell, and that was the end. “Isn’t your friend going to introduce himself?”

“He has a crush on you, so he’s shy.”

“I’m flattered.” Kakashi waved at him, but Obito turned his head away in an overly dramatic fashion. Kana turned her head away to hide a smile, but she heard Kakashi chuckle. “He doesn’t seem like he cares for me very much. He must have been the one stalking you. It makes sense. Is it teleportation?” She chewed on her bottom lip, contemplating the question, trying to decide if she would answer him honestly. After a quick glance at Obito, she made a so-so motion with her hand. “Why are you here, Kana?” The question she had been waiting for finally surfaced. She had the option to tell him the truth and fight him, or tell him a lie and fight him. Either way, they were going to fight again.

“Felony theft of the first degree and general mayhem. He really can’t take me anywhere,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. He eyed her, then he ran a hand over his face and sighed, sounding much older than he was. “You shouldn’t apologize anymore. It was almost ten years ago. You were a child.” Even though she excused his behavior solely on the fact that he was young, she knew it wasn’t an excuse, not when they were child soldiers at heart. He looked at the memorial stone again, and she wondered if he meant to ignore her presence altogether. “If Obito is still mad at you, he’s an idiot.” She thought she heard a snort, so she flipped Obito off, her eyes never leaving Kakashi’s profile.

“I think you should go.”

“You know I can’t do that.”

The calm shattered when he swiped at her with a kunai. She jumped back to avoid the blow, but she didn’t get the opportunity to strike him. Obito appeared between them and caught Kakashi’s wrist, starting a fight that Kana could only witness. The way they moved reminded her of a well-choreographed dance. Every punch and kick was perfectly executed and easily blocked and countered. They knew one another well, even after their years apart. Knowing that it was Obito beneath the orange mask made it even more painful to witness, because Kakashi had no idea that the man he was trying to kill was the man he missed most. Obito produced a manriki from within his sleeve and used the weighted chain to strike Kakashi in the chest, forcing the man back. To keep them apart, Kana threw shuriken, stopping Kakashi from advancing again. Ninjutsu only made the exchange more beautiful. Kakashi tried lightning release, so Kana intervened and used wind release to dissipate the lightning. The wind continued at Kakashi, followed quickly by Obito’s fire release. Kakashi created an earth wall and substituted himself with a log, letting the wall explode, sending pieces of earth in every direction. Obito struck a shadow clone Kakashi sent at him, the copy exploding with a puff of smoke, a distraction so Kakashi could engage Kana.

She drew her wakizashi and he fought her with a kunai charged with lightning. She covered her blade in wind chakra, every attack another meeting of the two elements. When she slashed at him, he jumped back, and Obito was ready to engage with him again. Both of them were aggressive with one another. Kakashi started creating raikiri and Obito patiently waited, as if the attack didn’t bother him at all. Kana formed the three seals for wind release: breakthrough, but Obito signaled for her to stop. The attack died before it even began. Kakashi thought the attack would kill him, and Kana thought the attack would pass right through him, so when the attack connected, she screamed. He stumbled back a couple of steps, Kakashi’s hand dislodged from his chest. Kana chose to fight Kakashi, the man dazed at the fact that Obito was still alive. Kana struck him with wind release great breakthrough and uprooted trees with the force she put behind the attack. Kakashi connected with a tree and the bark was stripped around him. She took one step toward the downed man, but Obito caught her arm. She looked at the perfect hole in his chest, where blood was still seeping through the clothing around it. Kakashi had missed his heart. Obito must have moved.

“You’re still the same bastard, aren’t you?” Obito’s voice was shaky, but he was still alert, still alive. Kakashi looked at him, face contorted in pain. “You thought I’d die that easily? There’s nothing left to kill. I’m already dead.” Obito released his hold on her arm and she reached out to touch the area around the wound, but he knocked her hand aside. Still furious, she turned to glare at Kakashi. Kakashi tried to move, but she watched him struggle in vain. Kakashi’s visible eye widened and Obito turned from looking at Kana to looking at Kakashi. “So it’s doing it again,” he mumbled.

“I can see myself,” Kakashi said, his voice hoarse. He coughed a few times, as if gathering more air to his injured lungs. Obito reached up to touch the orange mask covering his face, while Kakashi reached up toward the slanted hitai-ate. Kana didn’t fully understand, but she knew something was happening to them. “How are you doing this?”

“What the fuck is going on?” She demanded an answer, one Kakashi refused to give, one that drove Obito to silence. “It’s the eye, isn’t it?” Her voice was low so Kakashi couldn’t overhear the conversation. Obito nodded, a frown hidden from view. He tucked the manriki away, so Kana took it as a sign to recover her dropped wakizashi. She didn’t want to lose her new blade. “Are you going to be alright for the mission? I can do it on my own,” she offered, ignoring Kakashi still trying to stand.

“Knock him out.”

At the words, the village sirens sounded and search lights turned on, illuminating the dark village. Kana scowled, but she drew a kunai and crossed the distance between them and Kakashi. She looked down at Kakashi and he looked up at her, wincing at the sudden motion of his neck. Instead of striking him, she stooped down next to him and moved his hitai-ate to examine the eye. The pattern had shifted, whether he knew it or not, taking him to the mangekyou level. Maybe they connected when they were both in mangekyou mode. She hummed, then she shoved the hitai-ate back down and struck him once over the head. When he didn’t lose consciousness, she struck him again. He slumped to the side and she removed his weapons and threw them away, leaving him unarmed and unconscious. She stared at his slumped form, then she kicked him in the stomach twice, hoping he woke up in terrible pain. She didn’t have it in her to kill him. She was weak. It was comforting to know that Obito didn’t have it in him either. With Kakashi unconscious, her anger settled on Obito.

“What the fuck were you thinking? What if he hit your heart? What if you would have died? You’re such a stupid prick! I would have burned this whole village down!”

“I’m fine.”

“You have a hole in your chest! That’s not in the definition of fine! You don’t get to fucking leave me!”

“I’m alive.”

“Good! I’m thinking of murdering you with my bare hands!”

Obito sighed and rested his hands on her shoulders, so her mouth snapped shut. The scowl on her face communicated her unhappiness, her raw anger, but he didn’t let it deter him. After a moment of silence, he took her right hand and placed it over his chest, and she felt nothing but smooth skin. There was no mark on him, no raised scar, no jagged lines. She pressed on his chest and waited for him to hiss in pain, but he didn’t. It reminded her of their mission in the Land of Snow, when he’d been poisoned. His reminder that she didn’t need to worry about him resurfaced. At the time, she’d thought he was being dismissive. As chakra signatures approached the training ground, she pulled her hand back and they left the area, disappearing and reappearing at another training ground, one farther from the main part of the village. They didn’t have time to talk about the fight anymore, no time for her to yell at him, no time to curse Kakashi to the grave. They didn’t discuss the fact that they’d left Kakashi. It was another pathetic moment, and she hated those.

With the increased security, they had trouble finding entry to the tower. The rooftop was covered with masked shinobi and the ground was swarming. The interior of the tower was just as busy. She surmised that the genjutsu on the guards had worn off too soon. She’d calculated that they would have three hours, so she was disappointed with the end result. Beside her, Obito looked at the same scene. The scroll they needed was located in the tower. They had no other option. They watched the patrols move around the tower from an apartment building across the street. The owners were civilians, and they were on the couch, watching television, thinking nothing of the intrusion. She loved her eyes, the best thing the gods had ever given her, despite the suffering she went through for them. Obito closed the curtains with a snap of his wrist and she knew he was upset with their circumstances. They’d been distracted, and it was her fault the layer of genjutsu and gentle mind prodding had worn off so soon.

“How many are in the room?”

“Five. I’m going with you.”

“Do you know who they are?”

He didn’t look at her when he asked. He was too focused on his thoughts and plans. Closing her eyes, she focused solely on the chakra signatures located in the Hokage tower. The room they needed had too many seals to count. It was the one place they were meant to defend, what she liked to call the war room. The kinjutsu scroll they needed was in a room with five people, and she recognized the Hokage, Shikaku, her ANBU commander, Genma, and Raido. Her ANBU commander, Wolf, wasn’t someone to underestimate, if the presence of the Hokage didn’t deter Obito. When she opened her eyes, she bit down on her lower lip. It was risky, but a quick entrance and a quick escape would save them the trouble of fighting everyone inside the room. Killing them wasn’t an option, as she didn’t think it was possible. The confined space would work to their advantage though, preventing the use of ninjutsu. But Shikaku’s clan techniques and his sharp mind made up for the lack of ninjutsu. In the end, Obito could avoid them all. She could easily serve as a distraction, but that meant holding the attention of five people while Obito searched for the scroll. It was ironic how the mission was a mirror of her mission in Kirigakure. That mission had gone to hell.

“Hiruzen, Shikaku, Genma, Raido, and Wolf, the ANBU commander. There are too many seals on the room to count. It’s heavily fortified. I can serve as a distraction,” she offered, knowing it was the more dangerous of the two options. He looked at her, finally pulled from his thoughts. He glanced at the closed curtains again, then he sighed, clearly hating her idea. She swatted his arm. “I don’t know where the scroll is, but I know I can handle being a distraction. You think I can’t buy you a few minutes?”

"I'll serve as a distraction, unless you think you can handle a kage."

"He's ninety."

"And your former commander?"

"I think he slept with someone to get the position."

"Fine. We're getting the scroll. There is no second chance. We need it for our business deal," Obito reminded her, lightly squeezing her shoulder. She didn't care for his weak attempt at affection. After what she'd witnessed, she pulled him into a crushing hug. With his arms around her, she could pretend she hadn't been scared to death. She reminded herself that he wasn't dead, then she pulled back. "Have you ever handled a chain before?"

"I have training with a kusarigama?" She likened the weighted chain on the weapon to the manriki, and he thought the same because he passed her the manriki. She felt the weight of it in her hands, then she tested it by tugging on the two ends. It was a weapon to keep people at a distance. He didn't want her near them. "Just focus on finding the scroll. I'll handle it."

He took her into his arms, then they appeared in kamui. She searched her pouch for flash bangs and found one. Using it was risky, but she hoped to catch them off guard. The angle had to be just right. Getting the wrong angle provided shadows for Shikaku to manipulate. She nodded, then she took a deep breath. Her moment of self-motivation grounded her. When they appeared in the center of the table, Kana threw the flash bang, temporarily blinding the five people in the room. Obito wasted no time beginning his search, while she engaged with Raido. Their fight was fast-paced, but it quickly ended when she struck his thigh with one of the weighted ends of the manriki. His femur cracked under the blow, and she kicked him aside to move onto the next person. Genma was ushering Hiruzen toward the door, so she made a shadow clone and slapped an explosive tag to its back. In the hallway, the clone exploded, shaking the walls and ceiling.

She saw shadows approaching her, so she dodged, throwing herself into a fight with Wolf. He went right for her throat, but she wrapped the chain around his blade, stopping it before he could slit her throat. In a battle of strength, he tugged her toward him, but she drew a kunai and tried stabbing him in the side. He deflected with an arm guard and took the whole chain from her. He blocked her kick and her punch, so she slammed her knee into his gut, sending him back enough for her to successfully kick him. She narrowly avoided Shikaku, throwing shuriken to force the man to move. When the two began working together, she relied on speed alone. She heard Obito whistle and Wolf punched her in the face. She slashed at him and cut his mask in half, then Obito grabbed her and they disappeared, Shikaku’s shadows reaching for someone who wasn't there.

When they were safely in kamui, Obito touched her face, but she jerked away from him. She felt along the bridge of her nose, checking to see if Wolf had broken it. She couldn't tell, so she had Obito check for her. His touch hurt, and she wanted to strangle him, but he set her nose and fixed it. The string of curses she'd hissed could have made a sailor blush. He lightly patted her left cheek and she took in the large scroll resting at his side. They'd successfully obtained the forbidden scroll loaded with kinjutsu. Her excitement was palpable. They'd only stolen the scroll to entice a certain sannin to join the organization, but she saw an opportunity when one was presented.

"You know we didn't steal this for you." She knew he was smiling behind the mask, likely just as giddy over their success. He moved the scroll out of her reach so her inching hand met air. Frowning, she leaned to touch it again and he put himself in the middle. "It's not for you, Kana." She couldn't peer over his shoulder, so she leaned to the side, but he hooked his free arm around her waist and stopped her.

"He's a flighty, selfish, manipulative bastard. We don't need him in the organization. Yes, we've discussed this, and after thinking it over, I've decided you're still wrong. If you give me the scroll, I'll put it to use." He stared at her, the look in his visible eye letting her know that she hadn't won. She lightly kicked his ankle, but the look remained. "It's a horrible mistake and I'm going to point and laugh when he royally fucks you over. You'll never live it down. Your eulogy will include me saying 'I told you so.'" She was laying it on thick, and he responded by slapping her right thigh.

"If I let you look, will you shut up?"

"Probably not."

"The information is relatively old. This kinjutsu isn't from clans. Clans keep their own records. The shadow clone jutsu is in it, from the second Hokage." He spoke as he unrolled the scroll. He didn't think she was listening, but she was. When the scroll was fully open, it stretched across the entire concrete plane. Her sharingan active, she wasted no time scanning it over. Obito watched her as she moved. "I didn't think you had any childlike wonder left."

"Fuck you." For good measure, she flipped him off without looking up from the scroll. She stopped and frowned at a section. "Have you seen this before?" She looked up at him and he shook his head, so she crooked a finger, beckoning him closer. When he was beside her, she pointed at a jutsu that left her feeling uncomfortable. "What's 'Impure World Reincarnation'?" The words edo tensei were in bold. He looked at the scroll with his sharingan, then he placed a hand over the details.

"He won't be getting this. Memorize it and burn it."

"We could create a whole army this way."

"Memorize it and burn it."

"We could resurrect Rin." He burnt the scroll himself and she moved away from the heat devouring the paper. He put the fire out by stepping on it, sparing the rest of the scroll, then he grabbed her by the front of her cloak and dragged her to her feet, where he lifted her from the concrete. She tried prying his hand from her cloak, but he tightened his grip.

"Don't mention it again." He dropped her and she had to catch herself before her knees gave way. She scowled at him and he turned his back to her. "We're not resurrecting her. She's at peace. That jutsu is an abomination. Of course Tobirama would create it." She still saw the benefit of having the jutsu, even with his poor reaction. She hated herself for thinking of Kaisei. Obito seemed to know he'd reacted poorly, but when he tried to touch her shoulder, she slapped his hand away.

"Just let me finish reading."

Chapter Text

Kana celebrated her twentieth birthday in the Land of Bears, where she shared tea with the Hoshikage. The mission had been last minute, and with no other available members in Akatsuki, she’d volunteered to travel alone to the forgotten village of Hoshigakure. In comparison to other hidden villages, Hoshigakure was incredibly small, with intermarrying common between its inhabitants. She had never been to the village before, so the journey was interesting. She hadn’t expected the poisonous gas leaking from the ravine surrounding the hidden village. When she'd thought she would have to turn back, a local named Shiso had met her and escorted her across the canyon on a tightrope. The experience had been less than pleasant, and the green tea placed before her hardly made up for the effort it took to reach the village. Ten minutes of silence had her questioning why she’d bothered accepting the mission. Nothing about the village seemed amiss, and some of the older shinobi were less than thrilled to see her. As she added honey to her lukewarm tea, the old man across from her sighed and reached up to remove his formal hat. He was unlike other kage, and she attributed it to the small, isolated village. Kage were god-like figures. The man across from her would never survive with the kage from the five major villages. His hopes and desires to put Hoshigakure on the map would go unfulfilled. There was little she could do for them, but the man had been brave enough to ask Akatsuki for assistance, so she shared lukewarm tea and silence.

“This village was founded almost two-hundred years ago.”

“Impossible. Konoha was the first hidden village and Senju Hashirama was the first kage.”

“So that’s what they teach. Hoshigakure was once Hoshi-gai, located on the other side of the Land of Bears. The old village still exists. We relocated, became a hidden village, and changed our name a decade after the founding of Konohagakure. The first Hoshikage was an ordinary man. He was the one to discover the remains of the fallen star that landed here, the one behind the move. He was the first to harness the power of the star and complete what he dubbed star training.” The kage looked down at the kanji on his hat, then he hummed and set it aside. In the low lighting, his mustache and beard looked more grey than brown. Kana sipped her lukewarm tea, the honey a nice addition to the bitter tea. “After some serious thought, I’ve decided to discontinue star training. The cost of the power is too great. In three short weeks, I’ve lost two shinobi to the side effects.”

“You didn’t reach out to Akatsuki for this sob story, did you?” She set her teacup on the table between them and listened to his brittle laughter. He didn’t find real humor in what she’d said, but she didn’t draw attention to the fact. She knew her words were blunt, downright rude, but she didn’t accept the mission for a history lesson, even one she found mildly interesting. “You stopped star training. Is that the extent of your shinobi training?” He nodded and she shook her head, finding it ridiculous. It was no surprise that the village couldn’t make a name for itself with one mode of training. She knew that if she asked more about the training, he would end the discussion, because she was an outsider, and knowing the star training would give her an advantage he didn’t want her to have. “Your mission request was brief and unhelpful. You made it sound like you needed defense against an enemy. I’m not seeing an enemy, so why am I here, Ienaga?”

“The defense is from the world, shinobi-san. I’m asking you to stay here and teach what you can. You clearly know kenjutsu,” he replied, nodding toward the sword on her back. She arched a brow at him, remaining silent as he took a sip from his tea. The mission sounded terrible. She didn’t want to stay in a foreign village for an extended period of time, and no shinobi simply went around teaching their techniques, even with the mission pay. “I’m humbly requesting you teach the basics. I don’t want my shinobi using what they’ve learned from star training. It will end in death.” His tea was forgotten as he bowed his head to her. No other kage would have bowed to her, so the mission meant a great deal to him. He showed his desperation in that one motion. She still didn’t want to stay in Hoshigakure. Celebrating her birthday in the isolated village was more than enough. “It would be a great help and it would put an old man’s heart at ease.”

“Now you’re just bordering on pathetic. You have genin here that I’m willing to teach. Starting young is important. Select three.” He smiled at her when she caved and she rolled her eyes, more interested in a window off to her left. Her refusal to teach more than three led to more silence, where she knew he was considering pushing his luck. She didn’t need to agree to anything. She eyed him, considering whether she could take the old man in a fight.

“Four.” His expression was hard, tone firm. Wrinkling her nose, she tried to picture the children she’d passed along her way to the kage’s home. She didn’t want to teach four children, but the adults had been unwelcoming, at best. She didn’t want ornery students. She didn’t want any students at all. Yuka came to mind, the girl from Curtain Village. After careful consideration, she nodded.

“Make one of them Yuka,” Kana stated, leaving no room for discussion. Again, he smiled at her, and she gave him a blank look, knowing he was going to try manipulating her a second time. She downed the rest of her tea and set her cup down a little too hard, rattling the other items on the table. He seemed unbothered by her rude behavior, which was a shame, because she wanted to irritate him in the way that he irritated her. She wondered if he truly earned his title of kage, or if he’d simply inherited the role. Pein had assigned the mission, and Obito had told her to behave, as if she were a child being left unattended. In ANBU, she’d been barred from speaking to clients because of the number of complaints Kakashi and Hiruzen had received about her attitude. She wondered if Pein and Obito would hear of her bad behavior. The thought was amusing.

“Very well. The mission duration will be ninety days.”

“Thirty.”

“Sixty.”

“Ten.”

“Fine. Thirty. I’ll call for Akahoshi. He will help you find a suitable place to sleep.”

One of the attendants left the room and returned with one of the shinobi she’d seen along her way to the Hokage’s three-story home. Akahoshi’s thin, bony face gave him a gaunt appearance that likely persisted beneath his clothing. His pale skin and lavender hair only highlighted his sickly appearance. The look he gave her showed his distaste, but he showed nothing but respect when he bowed to the Hoshikage. Kana exchanged a look with Ienaga, then she got to her feet and stepped down from the platform and onto the tatami. Akahoshi chose not to bow to her, which was rude, but she didn’t condemn him for it. He had too much pride, which reinforced her decision to focus on genin. She could mold their minds, whereas Akahoshi was hopeless. As she stepped out of the home, she waited outside, where she heard a quick verbal exchange. Akahoshi called her a traitor and requested the kage reconsider his decision to accept help from Akatsuki. Ienaga refused, and Akahoshi walked out, throwing a look over his shoulder at the attendant before the door was closed in his face. Akahoshi wiped the anger from his face and looked down his nose at her. She understood men like Akahoshi—she hated men like Akahoshi. She motioned with a hand, so he turned and led the way through the village. He didn’t want her there, and she couldn’t blame him, but his attitude didn’t help matters. She grew tired of his silent treatment, so she stopped following him and went to explore the village on her own.

There wasn't much to see in the village, and the surrounding area was a sea of tall trees in every direction. She'd grown accustomed to life in a large village, so it colored her opinion of Hoshigakure. The village was quiet, and without electricity, it was dark enough for a clear view of the sea of stars. Something about the cold night and twinkling stars calmed her. Everything seemed insignificant under the night sky. And then Akahoshi finally realized she'd wandered off and returned to collect her, chastising her as if she were a wayward child. She had thirty days to teach four kids basic shinobi skills passed over in favor of something dubbed star training. The first Hoshikage had been an idiot. He'd chosen to rely on a meteor rather than a strong foundation of shinobi basics. Konoha hadn't been great, but she'd learned everything she'd needed to become a well-rounded shinobi. Unless the village changed, Hoshigakure would never know greatness.

"You'll be staying with me." He didn't sound happy; clearly, he hadn't offered his home to her out of the goodness of his heart. Ienaga had likely told him to look after her. He waited for her to thank him for his hospitality, but he soon realized she had no desire to thank him. The Hoshikage had accepted her attitude, so she expected him to do the same. He frowned at her and showed her inside. "I have a spare room in the attic. You don't have permission to touch anything outside of your room and the second-floor bathroom. Am I clear?"

"You make it sound like I'm going to steal from you. I don't need your shit. And so we're clear, I mean I don't need your belongings or your attitude. I'm here for my mission. That's all." He nodded once, then he showed her the entrance to the attic by pulling on a cord dangling from the ceiling in the upstairs hallway. He climbed the ladder first, and she followed him. The room was small, with one bed, a bedside table, and a dresser. "It's cold."

"That's not my problem."

"I hope you realize I could just kill you in your sleep."

"It's mutual."

He turned and left her, easily descending the ladder. She lit the candle on the bedside table and looked at the closed boxes piled along the far wall, blocking part of the room's only window. The bed wasn't made, but there was fresh linen folded and stacked on the bare mattress. The layers of dust on the boxes and along the top of the dresser and table told her that the man hadn't tried to impress her. First, she dropped her sandals at the bedside, then she tested the mattress for dust. He'd likely stripped the dusty linen from the bed, since she didn't need to beat the mattress. Her expectations had been low, but Akahoshi still managed to surprise her. She closed the entrance to the attic and added seals to it, followed by the window. She heard muffled voices for a few minutes, then the home was quiet, signaling that Akahoshi had left or gone to bed. Even before she entered the village, she felt something off about the place. There was a chakra signature that registered in multiple locations, changing slightly from place to place. The shinobi there had part of that chakra inside them, and it was slowly chipping away at them. The foreign chakra was like a parasite.

That night, for the first time in over a year, she dreamt of her family. She woke up with tears in her eyes and she lay there for almost an hour, trying to remember the whole dream. The only thing she could recall was how happy she had felt. When the sun peeked through the exposed part of the window, she threw her blankets off and started her day. Akahoshi was already gone, so she started with a shower and changed into clean clothing. As she left the house, she pulled her hair into a ponytail. She planned on working on physical conditioning, and she didn't want to deal with hair sticking to her sweaty skin. If she had to waste thirty days of her life, those kids were going to learn what it truly meant to be a shinobi.

The Hoshikage welcomed her into his home and they shared breakfast together, then she shared her plans for the day. Star training was chakra heavy, so she had to assume the children were no better than limp noodles. The first genin to join them was Sumaru, supposedly a prodigy with the Mysterious Peacock Method. She studied him closely as he engaged in conversation with Ienaga. He was young, likely around Sasuke's age, but he looked underweight. Hokuto arrived next, followed by Mizura. Like Sumaru, they were underweight. Yuka was the last to arrive, and she apologized profusely. Of the four, she was in the best shape, which made Kana think the girl hadn't successfully completed star training. Mizura ate very little, though he drank his tea and conversed with Hokuto. Their chakra was wild in their networks, but Mizura's chakra seemed to spread from his network. He was sick. She set her chopsticks down and cleared her throat, calling attention to herself.

"For now, you're my students, which means I'm in charge, and I'm responsible for you. You're all underweight. Your muscles have atrophied, Mizura. You need a medic. Is there a medic in this village?"

"Unfortunately, no," Ienaga frowned. Kana pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed through her nose. She regretted not accepting medical training from Obito. "We aren't far from the Land of Birds. They have a hospital."

He said it in a way that implied she would have to journey to the nearby land. Mizura bowed his head and she surveyed the children, their expressions sad. Hokuto placed a hand over one of Mizura's and whispered something to him. Kana didn't want to waste time, but she'd given her word; she'd told the Hoshikage that she would train the four genin. If Mizura didn't receive medical attention, she couldn't help him. His body was slowly failing him.

"This is from star training, isn't it?" Kana didn't get an answer, so her attention shifted from the children to Ienaga. The man wouldn't meet her eyes. "This isn't how you treat your shinobi. These children are the next generation and you're killing them. You want this village to rival the five great villages, but you're sabotaging yourselves. In my opinion, using your chakra would only hasten the progress of this illness. To be frank, I'd hate to see what your insides look like, kid." Kana shrugged her shoulders, dismissive of the boy's negative reaction. His shoulders slumped, he looked down at his plate of food. Sometimes the truth hurt. "The Land of Birds doesn't have the training for this kind of situation. I'd suggest somewhere more advanced, like the Land of Snow."

"That's a far journey." Ienaga didn't like the idea. He toyed with his mustache as he tried to think of an alternative that wouldn't require full disclosure of the star training.

"Let me make it clearer for you. He's not going to live. His chakra is leaking from his network at high levels and destroying him from the inside out. Retiring might give him a few years."

"I don't want to retire," Mizura interrupted, finally finding his voice. Kana thought he was a fool, but she understood his refusal. He loved his village, even though the love wasn't returned. "I won't use chakra. That would give me more time and I wouldn't have to retire."

"Being a shinobi isn't everything, Mizura."

"That's easy for you to say, you don't have to give up."

"It's your decision. Either you get medical attention and I train you, or you continue suffering and I find someone else. In the end, whether you live or die makes no difference to me. But your friends clearly care about you, and they want what's best for you."

Kana got to her feet and motioned for the other three genin to follow her. Only Yuka followed, but the girl clearly wanted to stay with her friends. Yuka didn't ask about Kana's shinobi background; she thought the girl would want answers about their time together in Curtain Village, but Yuka waited beside her in silence. Kana didn't consider her approach as cruel, but she knew her blunt reaction had hurt Mizura and offended both the kage and the boy's friends. Sighing, Kana grasped the door handle, but the door swung open and the remaining three genin emerged from the home. Hokuto had an arm around Mizura, so Kana focused on the two. Sumaru bid goodbye to the Hoshikage, then they were alone.

"I want to seek treatment in the Land of Snow," Mizura announced, looking up at her with determination in his tired eyes. If she had to guess, he'd likely been bedridden at one point, hastening the deterioration of his muscles. "When will we be leaving?"

"It's going to be the five of us. Consider it a mission. It's a long journey, so I want you to pack for two weeks. Do any of you need help?" Three of them shook their heads, but Yuka slowly raised a hand. Kana withheld another sigh, then she nodded. Sumaru, Hokuto, and Mizura left together, while Kana allowed Yuka to lead the way to her home. "You're underweight, but you look better than you did. Have you been adjusting well?"

"There's been a food shortage for a while," Yuka quietly admitted, looking back at her. The girl purposely avoided the question, so she hummed and let it go. The home they approached was small, likely a one-bedroom home. “I’m staying with my uncle for now. My dad passed away while I was,” Yuka trailed off, leaving the blank for her.

She understood the unspoken words. Yuka’s parents were deceased, and she shared a home with her uncle and his three kids. The interior of the home was as small as Kana suspected. The home opened up into a kitchen and living room, then there was what looked like a bathroom and one extra door, likely the bedroom. While Yuka went to collect clothing and toiletries, Kana snooped around. There was no electricity, so there was no fridge to peer into. The villagers seemed to survive off of fish, deer, and wild boar, all of which came from the land surrounding the village. The few items she did find included rice, flour, and seasonings. The rest of the necessary items were imported from neighboring lands. At one time, Hoshigakure had been allied with Iwagakure, but Iwa liked to fuck over allies, so it didn’t surprise her when they parted on less than amicable terms. When Yuka emerged with her arms full of items, struggling to see over the mountain of things, Kana took some of the clothes and the bag of toiletries from the girl. Together, they sorted through the items, where Kana allowed her to keep three sets of clothes, the bag of toiletries, and a crossbow. The girl didn’t have kunai or shuriken. Clearly the common weapon in Hoshigakure was a crossbow.

“You’re a missing nin, aren’t you?”

“What gave it away?”

“Why don’t you stay? You’re a wanderer, right? I would vouch for you. I owe you my life.”

“I’d rather jump into the ravine. Hoshigakure is an interesting stop on a journey to somewhere else. That’s all.”

“My uncle is looking for a new wife,” Yuka said in a sing-song voice. Kana shoved her in the direction of the door and crammed all of the girl’s items into a backpack. With the bag packed, Kana tossed it to Yuka and the girl grunted under the weight of it. Kana smiled and flicked her forehead. “I think I overpacked,” Yuka frowned, the weight shifting from her back to her knees.

“Deal with it.”

“You’ve been summoned.” Before they had the chance to close the front door behind them, Akahoshi reintroduced himself, his usual disdain written all over his pale, thin face. Kana glanced down at Yuka, then she eyed Akahoshi with suspicion. They had a meeting time and another conversation with the kage would delay them. Hadn’t she said enough to that old fool? “Now,” Akahoshi frowned, stepping aside to allow Kana to pass.

“It shouldn’t take long. Meet up with the others,” Kana frowned, nudging Yuka in the direction of the village entrance. Akahoshi kept his eyes on Kana, the blue of them speaking of his frigid opinion of her. When Yuka was out of sight, Kana studied him again. “You realize this would be a poor assassination attempt, right? So you keep me busy and some other idiots assassinate Ienaga? Or maybe this is more personal?”

“I am a loyal shinobi of Hoshigakure.”

“Yeah, you keep telling yourself that. Lead the way.”

Chapter Text

He stood outside of the kage residence, his eyes fixed on something in the distance. She could almost pretend that two years hadn't passed, that he was the same shit she looked down on in their district. He looked miserable, even beneath his indifferent facade. He had too much heart. She could say that about him because she knew it was true. He'd cared too much, gave too much, and what was left was terrible to look at. She'd never held her tongue with him. Everything she wanted to say, she said. So while Akahoshi stepped into the residence to wait for them, she stopped next to him and tried to find what held his attention. A lone crow circled around in the sky, dark and silent, an extension of him left to wander. She always found his crow summons. They were too curious, sometimes too loud. Their eyes were always intense, just like his. She hadn't seen his eyes without the sharingan in over a year. When the crow disappeared in a flurry of feathers, he finally turned his gaze to her.

"Every time I see you, you look a little closer to death. Are you trying to go blind?" At fifteen, Itachi was taller and he had no baby fat on his cheeks. He looked like the perfect shinobi boy, if it weren't for the deep line running through the leaf symbol on his hitai-ate. She tried to flick his forehead but he moved his head to the side and she missed. She settled for lightly kicking his right ankle.

"I'm here to retrieve you for a more important mission. Our priorities have changed. This has been reassigned." He spoke in a detached manner, as if he had no personal interest in his task. And maybe he didn't. Someone had named Itachi the perfect errand boy. She reached for the door, but he placed a hand over her wrist. She didn't appreciate the contact, so she dropped her hand. "Konan will be handling the mission. You're with me."

"What's more important?"

"Orochimaru has joined the organization."

"This better not be for some kind of celebration."

"We're beginning the hunt for jinchuriki. Kisame is waiting for us by the ravine."

Kana didn't know what to say to him, so she motioned for him to lead the way. Obito had been adamant about finding the right shinobi, forming the right pairs, and something felt too rushed. Sasori had nearly beheaded his partner two weeks ago, and Kakuzu had left his partner in another country. Itachi and Kisame formed a balanced pair, so she believed they had a chance of taking a jinchuriki, but they didn't have the manpower to make all of their moves in succession. They were going to fail. And maybe that was the plan. Pein was proud and arrogant, and he wholly believed himself a god among men. Had he taken control? Kana wondered if Obito even knew about the mission. As they walked, she scowled at the world around her, her dark expression a perfect representation of her inner thoughts. They were going to fail. She wasn't dying in Iwagakure. Before they reached the ravine, she rested her hand on his right shoulder.

"You realize this is a doomed mission and there's a chance we'll die, correct?"

"There's always a chance of death, Kana."

"You aren't this stupid, so you're aggravating me on purpose. This is just a power play."

"Yes, I realize this, and I'm aware that this mission was given to me in the hopes that I would die in the process." Kana stared at him for a long moment, then she removed her hand from his shoulder. Obito planned on using them until they had nothing left to give, but Itachi's words introduced more questions. "Kisame isn't my partner because of chance or even because we happen to work well together. He's my partner because he reports on my words and actions, and they believe he could take me in a fight. They are wrong, but his presence puts them at ease. Sometimes spies aren't spies."

"Are you a spy, Itachi?" She looked into his crimson eyes when she asked and they maintained eye contact for awkward seconds before she blinked. For a moment, she thought she saw some humor in his expression.

"Sometimes spies aren't spies, Kana."

He poked her forehead and she slapped his hand aside. He had nothing to gain by exposing himself. He continued down the path, so she stared at his back. When he stopped again, he looked over his shoulder at her and the wind caught his hair. She could almost pretend they weren't about to embark on a doomed mission. When he exploded into crows that took flight, she released a breath and rolled her eyes. She reached the ravine and saw Kisame and Itachi waiting for her on the other side. Grinning, Kisame waved to her. She hadn't seen him in months, and his hulking figure made her wonder if she'd underestimated the two. She found a crossbow tucked away in some bushes, exactly where the locals had shown her, so she shot at the opposing cliff and walked across the rope held between the sides. Yuka would wonder about her. Her time as a sensei had been cut short, and maybe it was for the best, because she didn't want them anyway.

"Are you ready to fight a jinchuriki?" Kisame looked excited at the prospect, not that she was surprised. He thoroughly enjoyed fighting, especially when he faced difficult opponents. And she couldn't speak, because she loved testing herself too.

"The second it looks bad, I'm abandoning you."

"You wouldn't."

"She would," Itachi interrupted, earning a satisfied smirk from her. She fought for many reasons, some good and some bad, but fighting a battle for a man that irked her, at best, wasn't appealing. With more time and preparation, she would have enjoyed the mission. "Let's go." She didn’t know why Itachi had been put in charge of the mission, but her gut told her that it went along with his story about the hope of his failure. She wondered if he could ever do what he’d done and still hold some loyalty to the village. They’d never talked about what happened that night two years ago. She didn’t think they ever would.

“Happy birthday,” Kisame spoke again, once they’d crossed the border from the Land of Bears. She couldn’t keep herself from chuckling, because they had the habit of meeting up around her birthday. A day earlier and she would have claimed it a tradition. “You’re twenty now. Barely an adult,” he remarked, clearly nostalgic about his own younger years. She thought it was ridiculous, considering he was still twenty-six, but she let him reminisce, because she did enjoy working with him.

“You make yourself sound ancient. Is this because some sharks have a lifespan of thirty years?”

“I like you. Don’t make me change my mind.”

“Fine. No more shark cracks. For the record, my birthday was shitty again. Not a single present."

"I'll let you have the first blow," Kisame offered, tempting her. They had yet to reveal the jinchuriki they wanted her to track, and his words broke the ice, allowing Itachi to finally frown. They didn't stop to talk, not that she expected Itachi to give them a moment. "Once we reach the Land of Earth, it's all up to you to locate this guy."

"Iwagakure has two jinchuriki. I've never met either one of them. You know how this is going to go. I need more information than that," she said, rolling her eyes. Already, she expanded her senses and began hunting for large chakra signatures. Masking chakra signatures worked, to an extent, but jinchuriki had unique signatures, two of them, whether blended or separate. "One is in northern Earth. One is in southeastern Earth. I would guess that the five-tails is in the southeast. There's a higher concentration of mixed chakra and it reminds me of boil release."

"The jinchuriki we're hunting is named Han. He's known for steam ninjutsu. He's a master of it." Itachi didn't look back at her as he spoke, but she stared at the back of his head anyway. She recalled a shinobi named Han. He'd had a whole bingo page dedicated to him.

"I assumed he was dead. He dropped off the radar after the third war. Did he abandon Iwagakure?" She didn't know if Itachi would answer her, then she saw him nod. Maybe if villages treated their jinchuriki well, they wouldn't have lost them. Han wasn't the first to become a missing nin. She couldn't recall everything from his bingo page, but she remembered that the man had once been flee on sight. She'd never fought anyone with boil release. "First blow?" Kisame laughed at the question, knowing that between the chakra signature, his offer, and her own reluctance to sit back and watch, he'd captured her. Maybe they could pull it off.

That lone thought ignited her determination and followed her through their journey to the Land of Earth. When they stopped, they stopped for food. Kana had accompanied the pair on two other missions, and their relationship was unusual. While Kisame talked about getting crab legs, Itachi remained quiet, occasionally nodding at his partner's words. Overall, they were both quiet people, but between the two, Kisame was more talkative. He made the journey bearable. She watched Kisame point out a small bakery, but Itachi refused to look at it.

"You know it's been a while since you've had dango. You get pretty pissy without your sweets. Everyone has a weakness, even you."

"I don't have a weakness for sweets."

"Heh. Of course you don't."

"Alright."

Kana left them in the middle of the street to find her own eating establishment. She had no fear of being left behind, since they needed her sensory skills to locate their target, so she had no reason to stay and watch the two have some weird friendship moment. Kisame might have been placed with Itachi on a secret mission to observe him, but Kisame clearly respected him. Kana still saw the emptiness from the massacre two years ago. Maybe he considered his life worthless, maybe he thought he didn't deserve to live, but he relented. As she looked back at them, she saw them entering the bakery. Itachi had a weakness for sweets. He was human.

She found a teahouse that served a variety of teas and light snacks, so she requested a table away from the other patrons and looked over the teahouse menu. As she read her options, her eyes lingered on matcha tea. She remembered the moment Kakashi confessed to knowing her love of anything matcha. Had she been happier then? When she ordered, she chose white pear tea and daifuku. Sitting alone didn't bother her, but it gave her too much time to think. She latched onto Han's chakra signature to distract herself, as if focusing on the combination of fire and water would keep her mind from drifting back to Konoha. She wondered how Itachi slept, if he had the same nightmares, if he remembered only the best moments with his family. Trauma carved words and images into a person's mind. Sometimes it broke them.

The white tea smelled and tasted like pears, making her doubt the season. A couple at a table across the room leaned in to speak to one another, so she watched them, allowing her attention to shift from Han. They were boring to watch, but they didn't seem to think they were boring, because something the man said had the woman giggling. Watching them irritated her. They didn't understand the climate of the atmosphere, both in that teahouse and in the world. The world was a terrible place filled with terrible people. She wanted to be just as oblivious. She envied them. Because they didn't have to fight for everything they had. Their relationship seemed effortless. It was unfair of her to judge them, inaccurate to place a label on them based off of twenty minutes of observation, but she didn't care. She wanted someone to look at her the way that the two looked at one another. On her way out of the teahouse, she dropped her leftover daifuku onto the man's lap, and he spilled his hot tea all over his crotch. Effortless.

Chapter Text

The punch connected with her gut and she flew backwards. Her back connected with the ground and she slid several feet before coming to a stop at the base of a tree. It took her a few minutes to regain her breath, then she forced herself to her hands and knees and pushed off the ground. Kisame played distraction, while Itachi tried to capture the jinchuriki in a genjutsu. The problem was that he was in control of his tailed beast, making genjutsu useless. Itachi dodged a strike that fractured the earth and Kisame attacked with his sword. They weren’t winning, and the fight had gone on too long. When Kisame took a hit, she winced at the sound of his bones breaking. She’d been lucky to avoid the same fate. She threw three shuriken that bounced off the man’s armor, then she dodged an attack with steam that would have burnt her. She sensed a strong chakra signature approaching from the north at a quick pace, and she knew that they needed to capture the jinchuriki before that person arrived. It felt too much like Roshi, the jinchuriki of the four-tailed beast. She couldn’t miss his lava release, the intricate combination of earth and fire. She broke the armor around Han’s chest, but he hit her so hard that she coughed up blood, and he followed the hit with another that she knew cracked her sternum. Itachi stepped in before Han could finish her off, so she put space between herself and the jinchuriki.

“We need to end this or get the fuck out of here. Roshi is approaching.”

“Itachi?”

Kisame used a water release technique to force Han back, buying them time to come to a decision. Itachi made eye contact, but Kana sensed the chakra from the five-tails disrupting the genjutsu. Itachi had control of the mission. It was his word that would decide whether they fought or fled. They needed time to get away, so Itachi closed his eyes and nodded. Their first attempt on a jinchuriki had failed. They knew where they needed to improve, and Kana admitted she needed to train with them to find a rhythm, because fighting alongside a couple in sync made her feel clumsy. Kana threw a smoke bomb and they left. Han chose not to pursue them, which was a wise decision, so they only needed to avoid Roshi.

Every breath hurt, and she knew she would have an ugly bruise on her chest. Kisame sported a broken right arm that didn't seem to bother him at all. Itachi refused to look at them, though she heard his labored breathing. Something was wrong with him, but she didn't think he'd ever admit it. Losing Shisui had changed him, raised walls around him to keep everyone at a distance, and she knew how that worked, how it felt to lose someone. Kana tried to focus on her breathing, but her chest ached, and the running didn't help. They didn’t talk about the failed mission, though she could tell that neither man appreciated losing. The retreat was necessary, but that didn’t mean it felt good. She’d thought that they could take him on, but his steam ninjutsu was too much, and his taijutsu boosted by it only made him more dangerous. She wanted a rematch. She didn’t know how long it would take to get another chance at capturing the jinchuriki, but she would accompany them again.

They couldn’t make the trip back to Amegakure when they needed medical attention, so they stopped in Kusagakure. There wasn’t anything they could do about her sternum, since it was a clean fracture that needed time to mend itself, but they repaired Kisame’s arm and gave him a sling to wear for six weeks. He handled the news well enough, even though he was unhappy with the end result.

“Maybe you could take a look at my friend too,” Kana casually mentioned, standing beside Itachi. They weren’t friends, but their relationship wasn’t hostile. They tolerated one another. The doctor looked at Itachi, clearly waiting for him to sit down on the exam table, but Itachi remained standing, his expression blank. “You can let this nice doctor look at you, or I can give you a reason to be admitted. Your choice, Uchiha.” She nudged her elbow into his side and he frowned. He didn’t look like he trusted the doctor, and she’d felt the same way, which was why she’d demanded they share an exam room, allowing two others to be on guard. Kisame rested a hand on Itachi’s shoulder and the man slowly surrendered.

“I have a terminal illness, and there is nothing you can do for me, even if I did trust you,” Itachi admitted, fixing the doctor with a hard stare. Still, the elderly man insisted on checking Itachi over. Kana watched the emotions run across the old man’s face. She noted when his expression shifted from one of concentration to one of surprise. When he drew his glowing hands away from Itachi, he frowned and pushed his glasses up on his nose. Itachi didn’t ask for the results.

“Is that true?” Kisame didn’t seem surprised, so he’d clearly known. Kana couldn’t help the question. She’d never known someone with a terminal illness, unless stupidity counted. He wasn’t even fifteen. She’d killed children throughout her career as a shinobi, and she did it with little hesitation. At the end of the day, a target was a target. Itachi wasn’t a target though. He was one of four remaining clan members. At fourteen, Itachi had the power of the mangekyou. At fourteen, he’d mastered the sharingan. He was a prodigy. There was nothing the doctor could do for him. “Hm,” Kana responded, the noise enough. “Does the leader know?” The doctor quietly excused himself, giving them privacy that they didn’t need. If it weren’t for the genjutsu she’d cast on him, she would have killed him to tie up loose ends.

“Does he?” Itachi looked to Kisame, acknowledging the man’s part in his life. Kisame didn’t react to the question, and Kana didn’t think he would ever answer Itachi. She asked herself if she’d tell Obito, if she meant to betray Itachi’s trust. She had questions about his illness, questions about his plans, but she hummed again and picked at her nails. “I don’t require medical attention. We can go now,” Itachi decided, nodding once to Kisame.

“Wait.” Kana stopped both of them before they could reach the door. “I don’t think Pein needs to know about this,” Kana stated, her eyes focused on Kisame. She could have captured him in a genjutsu, manipulated his mind until he forgot all about the conversation, maybe even buried all memories of him finding out the truth, but she didn’t. Kisame didn’t seem surprised by her words. He exchanged a look with Itachi, then he shrugged.

“I haven’t told him,” Kisame said, the statement reassuring Kana. She planned on sharing the truth with Obito, but she’d never cared for Pein. Itachi clearly meant to continue being an asset to the organization until the very end, and that satisfied her. He was useful, and would remain useful, until he eventually succumbed to his illness. “You’ve proven you’re more than capable of handling yourself. As long as it doesn’t inconvenience me, I don’t care. I’m guessing it’s the same for you, isn’t it, Kana?”

“I think Pein is a bastard. I don’t like him. I’m waiting for the moment when I can celebrate his demise. So Kisame is correct. Don’t become a liability, and we won’t have a problem.” Kana brushed her hands together, then she turned and exited the room. Itachi led a miserable life, and she knew about that too. Every day had seemed a little harder than the last, until her complicated relationship with Kakashi. And then she’d lost him. “I’m not telling him we failed, by the way. I did my job.”

Kusagakure was a haven for her, so when they decided to return to Amegakure, she let her sour mood color the rest of the journey. She gave Kisame credit for attempting to start a conversation, but he received nothing but hums and long stretches of silence. Distracted, Kana focused on pinpointing Han again, and she found him near Roshi, as if the two were on friendly terms. Maybe they were—she didn’t know them. When they reached Amegakure, the cold, stinging rain ruined her concentration. Her hair plastered to her head, she scowled into the distance, trying to ignore the water soaking through her cloak. Amegakure was advanced, in comparison to Konoha. Kana liked to imagine that the hidden village was the birthplace of science fiction.

She declined attending the meeting with Pein about their failure in the Land of Earth; however, she had no real choice in the matter, because Itachi collected her, as if she were some sort of child. Pein had a way of looking at her very soul. She looked him in the eyes, as if he didn't make her squirm. They always stared at one another. It was a silent struggle for dominance, which she frequently lost, since the man showed no real need to blink. Sometimes she dreamt of his eyes. She wondered if they haunted Itachi too.

"You failed."

Kana hated those two words when they went together. She wasn't a failure. It was a temporary loss that they would correct in the future. Still, he didn't seem phased; his tone didn't fluctuate. His lack of reaction bothered her more than if he'd shouted at them. She didn't understand him, and his puzzling chakra signature ate away at her. She missed Itachi recounting the mission. The door opening and closing interrupted the story and drew her attention from Pein's eyes. He won another staring contest. She recognized warm embers, but it was suddenly a blazing inferno. Kana flinched at the feel of his suffocating chakra. So Obito hadn't known about the mission. She didn't get the chance to speak. Pein asked them to leave, but she hesitated. A part of herself wanted to witness Obito thoroughly berating Pein. It was an argument she didn't want to miss, so naturally Itachi led her away, making her feel like that child all over again.

Even in the hallway, they heard the heated argument taking place. She picked out keywords, but none of it mattered when someone was smart enough to activate the privacy seals. She'd never been left unattended in the tower, because she constantly felt for Pein's chakra signature that appeared in multiple places at once. Itachi and Kisame decided to get something to eat, but she declined and watched them go. Alone, she began to explore, silently hunting the echoes of Pein's chakra signature. Did he utilize shadow clones? Did he experiment on himself? There were six individual signatures, all of them feeling the same, and one that reminded her of exhaustion. She meant to uncover the mystery of their leader. She felt Zetsu approaching and she weighed her options. He’d threatened to eat her, but he’d never laid a hand on her. His signature was foul, and his personality left a lot to be desired, but he was harmless when he answered to Obito. Instead of stopping or hiding, she chose to pick up the pace. It was a waste, because he still found her.

“I don’t think you should be here, hm?” She wrinkled her nose at him, then looked around him to judge the distance between the six signatures and herself. She stood her ground, hoping to call him on his bluff. “You know he’s not here to protect you,” Zetsu noted, amused at her blank expression. He stood between her and the connection between the identical signatures, and he closed the distance between them as if he meant to murder her and bury her body in the wilderness. Obito really wasn’t around to protect her.

“If you touch me, I’m going to dismember you. So maybe it’s more accurate that he’s not here to protect you,” she countered, her hand already going for her wakizashi. Zetsu stopped his advance, so her hand hovered over the hilt of her sword. The blazing inferno cut a path through the building, and she knew that Obito had noticed her. What was so dangerous about her curiosity? The mystery tempted her. “I hope you realize I’m going to figure it out eventually, flytrap.”

When Obito’s signature was too close, she let her hand drop from over her hilt and settled for glaring at the retreating plantman. She didn’t want to deal with a pissed-off Obito, but everything had been downhill since Earth, so she wasn’t surprised when he greeted her by grabbing her upper arm and dragging her in the opposite direction. She muttered a sarcastic greeting, everything overwhelmed by his anger and the way it worked its way into his chakra. Her mind screamed danger, and his grip was bruising. When he’d clearly had enough of dragging her around the maze of a building, he took her into kamui, where he spent the next ten minutes glaring, his sharingan burning into her own. She kept her posture relaxed, hoping he would eventually run out of anger, but she was proven wrong when she tried to touch him and he slapped her hand away. Pein had clearly fed the flames, and she was left to deal with the aftermath of their argument. It wasn’t the time to ask him if Pein’s poor decision fanned the flames or if his own worry over her safety drove him mad. She bet on Pein. Obito was obsessed with his plans, and he was a perfectionist. Their failure could raise flags about the safety of jinchuriki, thereby increasing tracking and security. But she doubted the home villages actually gave a damn. Well, maybe Kumogakure.

“This isn’t what I wanted,” Obito stated, his tone clipped. She knew that without his words, but she encouraged him to continue with a hand motion. His glare lessened, his gaze finally over her shoulder rather than burning into her. “This could have set us back by years. Do you have any idea how much effort I’ve put into this project? He’s useful, or I’d kill him right now and take his eyes. That’s all he is, really. He’s holding the future in his skull.” He gave her bits of information that she tried to make sense of, and she was doing a decent job. He wanted Pein’s rinnegan. Their partnership was temporary. Obito had every intention of killing him or sacrificing him. “I finish arguing with him and find you snooping around in places where you shouldn’t be,” Obito frowned, looking at her once more. His disapproving tone was much better than his angry tone. She could handle disappointment. She’d been a constant disappointment for her family.

“To be fair, they left me alone, so it shouldn’t be a surprise.”

“Drop it.”

“I’ll agree to your face and go behind your back again.”

“Kana.”

She crossed her arms over her chest, as if daring him to start another argument. He surprised her by sighing, and it was him releasing the pent-up anger that had made his chakra suffocating. They both knew she would do it again. The more the three of them tried to conceal the truth, the more intrigued she became. Obito didn’t look like he wanted to fight her, and he’d stopped before the argument began. It meant he’d thought of his plan, not her. The acceptance was instantaneous, because she already knew where he stood on Tsuki no Me. She wasn’t going to waste her time focusing on her disappointment. She could pretend he was upset over her safety. She was pretty good at pretending. She thought she was doing them both a favor by telling him the truth. The way he said her name was so final. It was the end of the discussion, for the moment. He manhandled her once more when he took them out of kamui and back into the stinging rain of Amegakure.

“Tell me you have a mission far away from this place,” she frowned, head tipped back to show her expression to the grey clouds. His hand settled on her lower back and he nudged her into a slow walk. “Tell me you have a mission far away from this place,” she repeated, some acid hidden in her tone.

“I have a mission far away from this place,” he shared, bringing the smallest of smiles to her face. He saw her expression, but he didn’t laugh. She could tell that he said it just to shut her up, so she scowled into the distance, wearing the same expression she’d worn as she’d entered the hidden village. “I could take you to the beach,” he offered, clearly trying to sugarcoat a mission. She couldn’t imagine them taking a beach vacation. She could imagine them on a mission, which was vacation enough, in her book. He saw that she didn’t fall for the bait and he hummed. “Fine. We’re going to the Land of Woods.” The name reminded her of her time in the basements of Curtain Village. She’d never been to the Land of Woods. “Konoha is sending a team of ANBU to meet with the Prajna Group, a black ops group that’s a mirror of ANBU. They’re planning to betray Konoha, and they reached out to us for insurance. I bet you can guess who’s going to be there,” he trailed off, silently prompting her.

“Fuck no. Take someone else,” she scowled, turning to walk in the opposite direction. His arm shot out to block her way and she dipped beneath it, so he swept her legs and caught her before she hit the ground. She glared at his visible eye. “I’m tired of running into Kakashi. He’s everywhere. It’s like this is a shitty soap opera.” He let her rant as she straightened up, then he rested his hands on her shoulders and calmly said her name. Her mouth snapped shut, but the glaring continued.

“You can always go with Orochimaru to negotiate with the daimyo in the Land of Rice Fields.”

“When are we leaving?”

“That’s what I thought.”

Chapter Text

The Land of Woods lived up to its name. Winter left the many trees bare, though there was a coating of snow on the branches. Every chilly gust rattled the cold branches and sent snow raining down on them, until there was nothing left for the wind to carry. She imagined the area would look beautiful in the spring and summer, but she knew it was unlikely they would visit the country again. As they walked, Obito gave her a short history of the Prajna Group. The capital, Juno, served as the hidden village, and there was no general shinobi force, just those strong enough to earn placement in Prajna. Juno had no kage, and didn't try to compete with major nations, so its inhabitants had never found a need for a large army. The first war they'd participated in was the Third Shinobi War, and they were the only participants not to have a single death. She wanted to see why the world didn't dabble in the Land of Woods. Kana didn't get to voice her interest in the group before Tobi made an appearance and pretended to steal her nose. She remembered why she liked traveling with Itachi and Kisame.

The woods ended at a large river that continued south through the rest of the country. The river was wide and covered in a sheet of ice, with a dusting of snow along the surface. Tobi tested the ice with one foot and they both heard a crack that had them reconsidering their route. She thought he might play around, but he hummed and looked down at the water seeping from the cracked ice. It wasn't thick enough to hold their weight, and she didn't feel like falling through. In the silence, he contemplated taking the risk to save time. She threw him a dirty look when he tested the ice a second time, knowing exactly what he wanted to do. Water walking was simple, but having ice crumbling under her feet while she was trying to balance her chakra sounded complicated. He turned to her and rested his hands on her shoulders. Without warning, he shoved her onto the ice and she gave a startled shout. She heard a series of cracks and she tipped to one side as the chunk of ice she was balanced on began to sink. She slid, focused on her chakra, and moved to another area, repeating it numerous times to keep from falling into the water.

She listened for cracks to indicate that he'd begun his own journey across the ice, but she couldn't hear over the noise of her own ice cracking. When she glanced up, she saw him standing in front of her, on the opposite bank. He raised a hand to wave at her and her foot went through the ice. She tried to pull her foot free but the ice split again and she fell to her hands and knees. She looked up to see if he was still waving, and the ice tipped, taking her down with it. She fought to reach the surface before the ice bobbed back to the surface, but she wasn't fast enough. She was trapped. All she could think was that maybe curiosity did kill the cat, and that satisfaction alone wouldn't bring her back. Before she drowned, she thrust her chakra coated fist through the ice, and she felt a hand grasp hers. Obito pulled her from the water and he took them to kamui, where she curled up in a fetal position, shivering to try and regain warmth. She couldn't control her chattering teeth to yell at him, so she glared at him, communicating with her burning sharingan.

"You weren't supposed to fall through." She protested as he tried helping her out of her wet clothes. She punched him in his knee and it buckled, so he yanked on her hair, pulling her head back so far that it was painful. "Maybe you learned a little something today, Kana. Next time, I might let Zetsu really eat you." He released his hold on her hair and got to his feet. She hated when he stood over her. It made her feel subservient. "Change. I saved us an hour."

"I could have died!"

"I saved you, didn't I?"

"I'll burn Zetsu alive," she threatened, heat behind her words. He sat down and watched her impressive impersonation of a drowned cat. She peeled off her cloak and shoved it away from her. "I should have killed you the first night we were together. What kind of an idiot sleeps so heavily when he's with a hostile?"

"What kind of an idiot gets a chance to kill her kidnapper and rolls over and goes to sleep? What kind of an idiot are you now?" He tipped his head to the side and the blank mask mocked her in perfect harmony with his words. "The key to Pein's power relies on a lack of information about his abilities. I still need him. You don't need to know this secret." Her movements were jerky as she tried to remove heavy clothes and change. He was overly paranoid. She wondered if he thought she'd betray him to Kakashi. He likely did. "You weren't supposed to fall through the ice," he repeated, with no apology following the words.

"Fuck off and die." She threw a kunai at him for good measure and he turned his head so it flew by him. They both heard it when it finally connected with stone on another level. He stood and approached her, so she prepared to grab another kunai. Instead of fighting her, he helped her collect dry clothing from her storage scroll.

"I don't have time to play with you right now," he said, scolding her with his tone. He was still angry with Pein and Konan, and he had redirected it at her. She snatched the clothing from his hands and finished getting dressed in silence. When they left kamui, she stepped on his foot and he kicked her shin. She didn't forgive him.

Though Obito had saved them time, the meeting went as scheduled. The group before the two wore oni masks, all of them matching, because they referred to themselves as one. One body. Kana eyed the mask of the leader, the three horns sharp, the mouth open for a sinister grin with sharp fangs, then she looked beyond the mask to the brown-haired man beneath it. He'd given his name, only because it was required during the mission request, but he preferred not to use names. She appreciated the namelessness and the meaning behind acting as one seamless unit, but sometimes people earned names. He didn't want them calling him Kurozuka, so she decided to call him Kuri, the chestnut moniker matching his hair color. Tobi had made an expected reappearance, leaving her to deal with their client. Kuri provided a scroll sealed with blood-red wax, then he stepped back into formation. The silence spoke of professionalism she hadn't encountered since her days in ANBU.

"The meeting point is the Ajisai Bridge. It's an exchange of ceremonial scrolls." She skimmed over the scroll, then passed it to Tobi, who didn't bother reading it. He knew the mission details, even if he acted like an idiot. "Poking the sleeping bear isn't going to make you any friends. You're betting on Konoha not taking the challenge." Kuri nodded, the only sign that he'd heard her. She couldn't blame them for wanting more out of the arrangement. The Land of Woods was more than capable, but its numbers were small in comparison. "There will be one unit for the ceremonial exchange and two units on standby. Leave them to us. The ceremonial unit is a strong combat unit. That's your problem."

"Follow me to Juno. I'll issue you uniforms." Kuri bowed his head, then the men at his back disappeared in body flickers. He was the one to walk with Kana and Tobi. While Kana didn't try to engage him in conversation, Tobi insisted they walk beside one another so Tobi could bury him in pointless chatter.

"So you're all demons? How do you issue commands if you don't use names and all of your masks are the same? Is it by numbers? Do you secretly have nicknames you don't want to tell us about? You can trust us. We're friends here, right, Kana-chan?" Tobi whipped his head to the side so he could see her expression, so she turned her head away and ignored him. His voice lowered, Tobi went back to addressing Kuri. "It's a woman thing."

"There were no women in your group," Kana interrupted, drawing the attention to herself. Of the nine Prajna members they'd met, she hadn't seen a single female. Tobi feigned a gasp, trying to show shock and outrage, while Kuri acknowledged her with a nod. "There are no kunoichi in the Land of Woods," Kana stated, taking a chance on a hunch. Again, Kuri nodded. She wasn't satisfied with his nonverbal response. "Why is that?"

"Prajna existed before chakra existed. Women were gatherers and mothers. Men were hunters and warriors. There are no kunoichi because women in the Land of Woods show no interest in changing that. Few people ever notice a lack of kunoichi. If you were to ask other villages, they wouldn't know the truth." Kana understood, because she hadn't known, but none of the shinobi chakra signatures she managed to feel felt female, and the group she'd met had all had male builds. "I don't look down on you, Kana-san."

"A wise decision," she smiled, a sinister glint in her eyes. She thought she heard him cough, but Tobi reintroduced himself to the conversation by sneezing.

"Do we get to keep our cool uniforms or do we have to give them back? I want to wear a demon mask all of the time. Maybe we could all do it, Kana-chan!" Tobi looked at her, voice laced with excitement, so she chose to snort. He didn't let her reaction deter him though. "Oni-san?"

"I will confer with the others. We don't take such things lightly. You are assisting our people, so we may make an exception. We are indebted to Akatsuki." They were the last words spoken by Kuri. The rest of the journey to the capital was filled with the sound of their footsteps on the dead, snow-covered grass.

Juno wasn't an advanced city, not that Kana had expected it to be modern. Even Konoha had yet to update the architecture and layout of the village. Juno had old-fashioned homes, all one level, all with shoji doors and lanterns near the front doors. She saw shadows shifting and felt traces of chakra that seemingly vanished. The Prajna Group was impressive.

There was another twelve hours before the ceremonial exchange, and Kana wanted hot tea and a long nap. Her hair was still wet, so the cold temperature had her shivering. Tobi threw an arm over her shoulders, and even though she wanted to cause him bodily harm, she stole his body heat. Kuri stopped outside of an older building, where the exterior paint was chipping away and the windows were dark. She'd expected Kuri to lead them to headquarters, but maybe that was too forward. He didn't enter the building, simply motioned to it with a hand. Tobi went inside without further show, but she waited.

"What you choose to do with your time here is not my business. I will deliver the uniforms shortly."

"You're crazy. You know that, don't you?"

"I've never claimed sanity, Kana-san."

She wrinkled her nose at the words, but she'd said enough. Her mission success mattered, not the overall outcome for the Land of Woods. Konoha had been weak on two counts, so it was possible the village would show weakness again. The end to the Third Shinobi War had been a political nightmare, and the decision to trade Hizashi's life for continued peace with Kumogakure had been pathetic. Maybe Konoha would fail again. Kuri bowed his head and disappeared in a well-timed body flicker, leaving her on the doorstep of the old building. She followed his chakra signature until he concealed it, then she went inside. Tobi had waited for her.

The inn was the very first building in the capital, since the Land of Woods had been a stopping point between other major villages. Though the exterior needed work, the interior was welcoming and warm, two things Kana desperately needed in an inn. Instead of chatting with the other guests hovering near the downstairs fire, she followed Tobi to their room, where she immediately noted the two beds. She opened her mouth to start an argument, but she quickly shut it. She still wanted to hurt Obito, and sleeping with him would only remind her of their first night together, where she'd failed to kill him. Kana wondered if she'd fail again. How did love work when she wanted to murder him with her bare hands? She wasn't sure. She'd never wanted to kill Kaisei. As Obito removed his mask, she imagined a few murderous scenarios. She decided she would prefer to bash his skull in with his own mask, but she didn't know if the mask would break before she killed him. When he noticed her staring, he frowned.

"Apologize," she demanded, scowling at him. He snorted and she stood in front of him, keeping him on the bed. She crossed her arms over her chest and he looked at her with a blank expression. "Well? Apologize to me." Kana didn't care that her demand was ridiculous. She expected sincerity, despite the fact that she demanded the apology. He turned and moved to the opposite bed. "You didn't expect me to fall through the ice. I did. You're sorry, aren't you?"

"I didn't expect you to fall through. It wasn't my intention. You aren't dead. That's it." He shrugged his shoulders and turned his back to her. The first emotion was sadness, followed by anger. His words hurt. He was still angry with Pein. He was still wrapped up in his project. She made too many excuses for him. The realization hit her and she dropped onto the side of the bed and stared at the wall. Maybe he didn't love her. She'd never asked. That made more sense. "You can have the first shower. Wake me up when you're done."

"Hm." She absently responded, the hum all she could spare as she tried to think of the best way to broach the subject. Maybe she should have twisted his arm back then. Maybe he would have admitted how he felt. "Look at me." She recalled how that couple looked when she'd stopped for food. They'd had something in their eyes. She could read that. She should find the same spark in Obito’s eyes.

"I'm not apologizing," he frowned, turning so she could see his face. He looked annoyed, more than anything. She chose to ignore his words and look into his eyes. Her behavior confused him. She could tell by the way his brows were drawn together. He didn't know why they were staring at one another. She didn't see the spark there, just the dark color of his eyes.

"Would you care if I died?"

"You didn't die."

"Fucking forget it. You're still angry over the last mission. You didn't appreciate me snooping in your business. It's not my fault your organization is shit right now. It's a bunch of strangers learning how to operate as a team again." Her words reignited his anger, so she snapped her mouth shut and settled for glaring at him. She didn't want to return to kamui for an explosive fight. They had a mission. They were going to run into Kakashi again. Frustrated with glaring, she threw her kunai pouch at his head and it passed through him and hit the far wall. "Were you even concerned for my safety?"

"Nothing happened!"

"For fuck's sake, Obito! Do you love me?"

"That's what this is about?"

Lips pressed into a thin line, she managed a small nod. She didn't expect him to laugh, but the sound wasn't one she wanted to hear. He caught his mask that she threw at him and immediately went on to dodge both of her sandals, followed by the sheath to her sword. When he saw that all she had left was the sword, he frowned, all of his amusement gone. She didn't attack him, and he made no move to attack her, so it was another staring contest to wear on her nerves. He'd warned her that his focus was on the future, but his actions had contradicted his words. The lack of time they'd had together, along with his lack of reaction to her near-death experiences, made her doubt him. She'd never asked him for clarification. She asked him then. And it was awkward silence, where embarrassment slowly overtook her.

"Just go to sleep." She dropped her wakizashi on her bed and went to the attached bathroom, where she slammed the door in his face. She heard something break, followed by heavy footsteps, then she heard a small knock on the door. "No one's home," she frowned, turning the water on to drown out the sound.

She thought she should have cried, maybe burst into gut-wrenching sobs. Maybe she should have melted into a puddle at his feet. She wasn't sad. She wasn't angry. She felt nothing. Or maybe it was just a mixture of emotions that canceled one another out. That made sense to her. When she tried to get the shower to work, it wouldn't work. The water continued in the tub. No matter how hard she turned the knob, the shower wouldn't kick on. Finally frustrated, she broke the knob off, but nothing changed. The water continued running. They weren't going to get showers. Closing her eyes, she threw the knob over her shoulder and put the plug in for a bath. Despite her attempt to ignore the knocking, she noticed when it stopped, and she snorted at his pathetic attempt to make things right. He just wanted her to focus on the mission, but she was already well-versed in multitasking. She could hate his stupid ass and wipe the floor with former comrades at the same time. The door creaked as it opened and she threw a glare over her shoulder that made him stop.

"Now you want to apologize?"

"I'm not apologizing."

"I don't want to see you. I don't want to hear your voice. I want to take a bath and go to sleep. You are no longer a part of tonight's equation."

"Kana," he began, as if he hadn't heard a single word. She took a calming breath and contemplated bathing in the morning. He took one look at her expression and closed them into the bathroom, cutting off her thoughts of an easy escape. "I laughed because you wasted my time trying to subtly get the answer to a question you never asked. I thought this discussion was over when you told me you were in love with me. I thought we were fine." He turned the tub off before it could overfill, since she'd decided to stare at a spot over his shoulder. Maybe she should have twisted his arm back then.

"I want you to say it back." He wasn't expecting the words. His mouth opened and closed, then he looked away from her. She had the option to rush him, since he'd taken his sweet time coming close to any confession, but she chose to give him more time. He wasn't running away, not when he was within reach. "I don't expect you to take me on romantic dates. I don't expect dinners and flowers. I don't give a fuck about what we are. Tell me how you feel about me."

She wanted to shake the words out of him. She wanted to hit him until he cracked open and revealed what she'd thought was there, what she'd assumed was there, what she'd hoped was there. As the silence dragged on, her attention shifted to the cooling bathwater. When he left, she pretended not to notice. In the afternoon, they would face Kakashi again. Two failures in less than twenty-four hours.

Chapter Text

The weight around her middle brought her out of a restless sleep. She felt warm lips against her neck, his breath fanning out on her skin. If he knew she was awake, he didn't acknowledge it. He held her close, his bare chest against her back, and slipped a hand up her shirt to rest his hand on her stomach. His hand was as warm as his lips. After a moment’s hesitation, she placed her hand over his and he curled his fingers against her, their fingers loosely laced. She thought he might say something to ruin the moment, but he didn't. He pressed a light kiss to her shoulder, something she felt even through her shirt. It signaled the end of the argument and the completion of their proverbial cold war, where they'd done everything to ignore one another. Their penchant for violence was noticeably absent. His hand moved over her stomach in small circles, as if touching her grounded him. She wondered if they would ever have anything close to normalcy. The extent of their paradise was the bed they shared. The spell would end with the rising sun.

She closed her eyes and focused on his fingers trailing over her skin. He didn't reach for her breasts, and his fingers didn't dip beneath the waistband of her sweats. The room was warm, but his body heat felt nice. She thought he'd fallen asleep, but he kissed her neck again and she sighed, a show of her own contentment. Maybe he answered her in the way he held her, every feather-light kiss a confession. Maybe she read too much into his actions. His soothing motion ceased, so his hand settled against her skin. Neither of them spoke, both unwilling to shatter the peace between them. Lower lip caught between her teeth, she inched his hand up, his fingers gliding over her stomach, then her chest, where he cupped a breast and squeezed. Her sternum still caused her pain, but her whole body tingled as he teased her nipples. He pinched them between his fingers and rolled them until they were hard against his hand. Nothing about the moment was rushed. When he drew away, she turned onto her back and he leaned down to capture her lips for a kiss that sent butterflies to her gut. He was sweet, when he wanted.

She parted her lips and she tasted him on her tongue. His kissing had improved, so she savored each one. There was another flutter of wings each time their tongues touched. They kissed for several minutes, his right hand on her hip, the fingers on her left hand tangled in his hair. It was getting long again. His kisses moved from her lips to her jaw, to her neck, to an exposed collarbone. She knew that he would kiss every inch of her, if she let him. He slid his fingers into the waistband of her sweats and toyed with the top of her panties. He pulled away long enough for her to sit up and remove her shirt, then he was over her, his lips burning a trail down her body. He paused at her breasts to take a nipple between his lips, tongue darting to taste her, then he moved on, until he stopped at her sweats. He looked up at her and she saw his sharingan. With no complaints from her, he hooked his fingers into the waistband of her sweats and panties and tugged them down, slowly revealing more of her body.

He kissed along her right thigh until he stopped. He traced his finger over her entrance and she moved against his hand, but he pulled his hand back so his finger wouldn't enter her. She scowled at him and earned a breathy laugh from him, one that hit her core. It was pathetic of her to think he'd never looked more handsome. He kissed her thigh once more, then she felt him press down on her clit and slide his two fingers over it, that steady pressure causing her to gasp. Of course he still remembered how to touch her. His tongue replaced his fingers, which moved down to slowly enter her. His fingers curled to hit the spot that sent a jolt through her, so she gripped the sheets and clenched her eyes shut. He kept stroking that spot over and over again, pulling out and thrusting back in again. She didn't know she was holding her breath until she gasped. He stopped before she came, and her whole body tingled.

As he kicked off his pajama pants, she finished removing the clothing he'd shoved down her legs. He was already hard, but he stroked himself a few times. After he released the hold he had on his cock, he moved over her to kiss her chest and up to her lips. She thought he might have ruined the moment by speaking, but he didn't. How many times had she suspected he would? Too many to count. Instead, he lined himself up with her entrance and slowly pressed into her. He didn't stop until he was fully inside of her, then he kissed her again. That time, she ran a hand along his left side and he pulled his hips back and drove them forward in one smooth motion. She couldn't get enough of him. He smelled like dark amber and orchid, and she knew it wasn’t from the inn’s provided soap. It was his scent, and she breathed it in with every gasp. The hints of vanilla warmed her from the inside out.

The angle was nice, but she still raised her legs for him to thrust deeper, and she wasn’t disappointed. She missed the kisses she traded for his cock. He pulled out and pushed back in, over and over, and she moaned his name for the world to hear, because he remembered what she liked and he made her feel good. What had happened earlier didn’t matter then. Nothing mattered more than him hitting that spot again, every entrance having him gliding along her walls. When he was close, he moaned her name, and she felt as if her whole body were on fire. She liked when he said her name—she always had. She told him to keep fucking her, as if he needed the directions, and she let out a drawn-out moan of his name that changed in pitch, high at first and fading into heavy breathing. He responded by thrusting harder, and his hand went from her hip to her clit, where he rubbed her until she felt the rush of an orgasm all over again. He came with a groan and he fucked her through her orgasm until he came to a stop. He looked down at her and she stared up at him, her body still pulsing with the fading ecstasy.

He eased out of her and lay next to her, both of them on their backs, their eyes on the ceiling. When she turned her head, she studied his profile. He closed his eyes, but she’d seen that they were dark again, as dark as the bedroom they shared. She needed to clean up, but she found she didn’t care. She ignored the way his cum felt between her thighs in favor of closing her own eyes. She was awake, but she knew they both could drift off, if they wanted to. The bed made a noise as he moved, so she opened her left eye to see him. He’d turned onto his side to see her, so she turned onto her left side and reached out to touch his cheek. He kissed her wrist and she rolled her eyes at his show of affection, even though she enjoyed it. She wondered if she would see something in his eyes, but she didn’t look.

“I’m sorry,” he finally spoke, his voice low. She thought he sounded breathy again, but it was the fact that they’d both sung choruses of moans for one another. With a hum, she poked his smooth cheek with her index finger and he made a face at her. He’d expected more of a reaction, but that was all she had, at the moment. “I won’t let you die.” She knew he meant to look out for her in the way he’d failed with Rin, but she didn’t comment on it. She didn’t need him to protect her; she needed him to love her. Maybe it was the same thing for him. That made sense to her. He spelled his love out in the way he touched her, the way he kissed her and fucked her. That had to be enough for her.

“Would you like to join me in the bath?” He frowned, clearly confused about the change of subject. She smiled and leaned in to kiss him, then he squeezed her ass. “Someone decided not to pull out,” she commented, earning a sheepish expression from him. His eyes dropped to her thighs, so she flicked his nose. “Are you coming or what?”

“I think we’ve already done that.”

“I hate you.”

“Mm. I don’t think you do. Although you did tell me to ‘fuck off and die’ earlier. Is that how you say you love me now?”

She smacked him in the face with her pillow and left it sitting on his face while she got up and went to the bathroom. Before she could close the door on him, he snuck up behind her, wrapped his arms around her, and rested his chin on her shoulder. He held her for a few moments, where she wondered if he’d finally get the courage to say the words aloud. Instead, he kissed her neck. Rolling her eyes, she lightly elbowed him and he closed them into the bathroom. She waited for him to run the bathwater, watching him the entire time. In the warm light of the bathroom, he didn’t look like the bastard she knew he was. He made the water hot, just how she liked it, and he got in first, allowing her to relax against him. She didn’t expect him to wash her, but he did. It was almost funny how the smell of gardenia overtook her, reminding her of the last time she’d smelled the scent. She hadn’t noticed when he’d pulled her hair up, but he kissed the back of her neck. He couldn’t stop touching her, and she liked every minute of it. She craved his hands on every part of her body. She wasn’t surprised when it ended with her pressed against the shower wall, ending in another bath. By the time they were back in bed, she was ready for sleep. He pulled her into his arms and she closed her eyes. She was almost asleep when she felt his lips on her neck, the words whispered against her skin.

“I love you.”

Chapter Text

Dressed in all black, she accepted the oni mask offered to her and secured it over her face. She readjusted the tanto on her back; she’d wanted to use her wakizashi, but Kuri had insisted she carry a tanto, so she’d sealed her beloved blade away and settled for a standard tanto. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail and left two pieces to frame her face. Something told her that even though they didn’t plan on interacting with Kakashi, they would end up fighting him anyway. She felt his signature hovering near the river, the element of electricity running through him like a current. Obito placed a hand on her back and lightly nudged her to the window, where they slipped out and traveled along the rooftops to the meeting point. He’d told her to be careful, knowing that she would make a mess of the mission if it meant succeeding. She promised herself she’d leave Kakashi to Obito, if everything went south, but she had a nasty habit of interfering, and there was no way that she would ever let Kakashi get another lightning cutter to Obito’s chest. Once was more than enough, even if Obito had fully recovered.

The Ajisai Bridge was a low bridge with beautiful arches, and it stretched across the river called Ajisai. The ice on the river was melted in spots, so fighting over the river wasn’t a wise decision. Obito gave her a look that told her as much, and she didn’t want to take another dip. A team of three stood on the bridge, with Hound in the center, holding the ceremonial scroll. Kuri signaled with a hand for the remaining two teams of Prajna to wait. His three-man team advanced, where the two sides met in the middle of the bridge and exchanged scrolls. Hound bowed first, and Kuri whistled, the signal for the attack. He swung at Kakashi with a tanto and Kakashi blocked. Kana didn’t know what the scrolls contained, but Kuri still snatched it from Kakashi before falling back for his two teammates to engage the captain.

There was something wrong with the shinobi around the area. As soon as she engaged one of the Konoha nin, she felt the oddity in the man’s chakra signature, the same oddity that came from every Konoha shinobi involved in the mission. There was foreign chakra in their systems. Even Kakashi had foreign chakra in his signature, focused on his head. The feeling distracted her enough for a blade to knick her mask, and she countered by thrusting her tanto forward, burying it in the man’s chest. She put more force behind it, until she felt the blade connect with flesh. The man screamed as she thrust her tanto, in one last effort to kill him. A Prajna member covered her back while she found new prey among the shinobi. Killing the two teams proved harder than she thought. She checked on Obito and Kuri, and they both handled themselves well, so she focused on amassing corpses. Her last opponent was stabbed and tossed over the side of the bridge, where he broke the ice and went under. He never resurfaced.

With everyone fighting in a confined space, ninjutsu was a mess. Kana constantly used fire, but she had to control her attacks to avoid injuring one of her allies. The unsettling chakra buried in Kakashi’s network held her attention, even as she fought. She recalled feeling the same chakra in Tenzo’s network, but she’d never figured out the mystery. Kakashi used his signature move twice, then he focused on taijutsu to conserve his remaining chakra. Obito’s eye drained him, so she knew the moment when he finally closed it. He couldn’t handle the power. She activated her sharingan when she engaged with her last target. He was fast, faster than she expected, but she didn’t recognize his chakra. He was a water user, which his attacks and his chakra signature told her. She could have dragged the fight out, but she noticed Kuri had engaged with Kakashi and the fight wasn’t going as planned. Some of the Prajna Group tried to retreat, but a fourth Konoha team emerged and they began hunting the members. It was going to be a slaughter.

Her cover depended on maintaining her disguise, but that went out the window the moment Kuri was struck down. The man tried to recover and act as support for his team members, but he didn’t move fast enough. Kakashi went for a killing blow, so she did a quick body flicker and intercepted the strike meant to kill Kuri. Kuri left her to fight while he fell back to aid his comrades. She couldn’t locate Obito with her eyes, but she felt his warm chakra amongst the chaos. She had a feeling that Konoha had been tipped off, even if she didn’t know how they’d gained the intel. Kakashi demanded all of her attention, so she stared into his visible eye, allowing him to see her sharingan. He recognized her. She could tell when he discovered it was her, because his smooth motions with his tanto faltered. Her goal was to distract him. With his chakra so low, she didn’t worry about his lightning. It was foolish of her to think he would fight her without using the element. His blade conducted his lightning, so she coated her tanto in wind chakra. Their blades met in rough strikes over and over, until she was able to land a hit that left a deep groove in his chestplate.

“There’s something wrong with your chakra,” she pointed out as their blades locked again. He put more force behind his attack, so she planted her feet and fought him with pure strength. He won, so she put some distance between them to allow her to send a fireball at him. His gaze hardened and he countered with an earth wall that crumbled under the heat and power of her attack. The bridge had numerous burn marks and cracks, some of the stones completely overturned. “You aren’t even going to greet me? Tch. Figures. Didn’t you miss me?”

“I’m not here for you.” He lashed out at her and she dodged. Her movement clearly frustrated him. Again, he tried to kill her. She’d mistakenly thought that he would choose her over the mission. He’d changed.

“And you think I’m here for you?” He struck her blade hard enough to chip it, so she pulled back and examined her blade. One more hit would likely break it, so she hummed and tossed it aside in favor of a kunai. She didn’t recognize any of the other signatures. She thought she’d encounter Tenzo and Yugao, since Itachi had defected and Shisui had died, but she didn’t sense them at all. They were strangers. “Why don’t you tell me about your chakra, Hound. It’s a fucking seal, isn’t it? You didn’t apply it. It’s not your chakra. So who gave you the seal?”

He broke her kunai and she clicked her tongue at him. There were too many Konoha shinobi left, so she broke away from Kakashi, intent on finding Obito. Kakashi refused to let her go though. He followed her as she weaved her way through the battles. He cornered her at the side of the bridge and she glanced down at the ice on the river. She considered jumping down, but going onto the ice meant risking falling through. More than that, she didn’t want him in a watery grave. He punched her so hard that her mask cracked and she tasted blood on her tongue. She retaliated by stabbing him in the shoulder with a kunai and he grunted and grabbed her wrist. He pulled her into him, so she tried kneeing him in the groin. He blocked her knee, so she headbutted him and he stumbled back. Her mask broke into pieces, revealing her bloody nose and her angry glare. He tried to summon lightning for another attack, but he stopped, his breathing labored. She couldn’t help but laugh at him and spit the blood from her mouth at his face. He kicked her in her chest and she cried out in pain and slammed into the side of the bridge. A chunk of stone broke off and she found herself tipping backwards, but a hand caught her arm. Obito pulled her upright and turned his back to her.

“You again, huh?” Kakashi eyed Obito and shifted his stance. He still had his tanto, so Kana passed Obito one of her kunai and the three of them fought, two against one. Kakashi’s chakra was heavier, and she recalled the man she saw at the memorial stone. Around them, the Prajna Group had gained the upper hand and its members were striking down ANBU members as if they were nothing. That allowed Kana to focus on Kakashi. “Is he your partner?” He clashed with Obito and swung at her with his non-dominant hand. She dodged his fist and swung her leg out to try and sweep him, but he jumped back.

“Something like that,” Kana replied, aiming for his throat. She cut a line through his shirt, her kunai nicking his skin. He tried to focus on Obito, but all of his attacks simply passed right through the man. Kakashi preferred fighting her, and she knew that. “All of your little friends have seals too. Is it a group project? You can tell me, you know. I haven’t killed you yet. I’d say that speaks volumes for my goals.” She dodged another fist, but he caught her with his tanto, cutting her upper arm before she could turn away from his strike. Obito retaliated with a large fireball that forced Kakashi to use a water dragon to put out the hot flames.

“I’m where I belong.”

“Is it a cult? You know those are only good for doomsday people. That’s not you.”

“You don’t know what kind of person I am anymore.” He backhanded her, so Obito punched him in the face, sending him stumbling backwards. The mask cracked down the center and split apart, leaving Kakashi’s scowl on full display. She knew when he was angry, and he was furious. “You can’t fight me yourself? It’s unlike you to hide.” She knew he was trying to bait her into recklessness, and she wasn’t falling for his taunting. Kuri whistled to signal the end of the fighting, meaning only Kakashi remained. He was constantly losing people, so she wasn’t surprised. He didn’t seem to care though. He still fought, his killing intent bleeding into the air.

“I didn’t think you’d go to Danzo,” Obito finally remarked, drawing Kakashi’s attention away from Kana. She was confused, so she turned to face Obito, expecting some explanation she never received. “Oh I know all about that seal. You’re one of his minions now? I expected better. What would your dead teammates think of you now? Would they be proud of you, Kakashi?” It was a cheap blow, and she saw the raw hurt in Kakashi’s gaze before the man could mask it with rage. Obito caught Kakashi’s fist and twisted, pulling the man forward to knee him in the gut. Kakashi tried stabbing Obito in the side, but Obito passed through him, leaving him to stumble forward two steps before pivoting. “You don’t belong in Root. Let’s see the seal, Kakashi. I know where it is. Open your mouth.”

“Root? Kakashi, what are you involved in?” She’d never heard of Root before, but both men seemed to know about it. Her temper flared, but she dropped her arms, her offensive stance relaxing. Obito and Kakashi continued exchanging blows, neither of them answering her question. She hated being ignored. Obito tried to stab Kakashi in the eye, but the man used a fallen comrade to block the blow. Kakashi had changed.

“How do you know about Root?”

“I’ve worked with Danzo. Didn’t he mention that? You know, I don’t think he deserves you. Let’s run away together.”

Kakashi opened his mouth for a snarky reply, but Kana swept his legs out from under him and he fell to the ground. The air knocked from his lungs, he tried to get up, but she pressed her foot down in the center of his chest, holding him there. Obito bent down to tug the mask down, but Kakashi turned onto his side and tried to pull Kana to the ground. They weren’t getting anywhere. She caught his eyes and her sharingan switched to the mangekyou. She caught him in a genjutsu he failed to break. Obito bent down again and pushed the mask down over Kakashi’s chin, then he lightly patted Kakashi’s cheek. He’d never seen Kakashi’s face before, and it wasn’t bad, in his opinion. He pried open Kakashi’s mouth to examine the seal, then he turned his head and nodded to Kana. She could feel the seal and tracked it to Kakashi’s mouth. Kakashi had gotten involved with something he should have avoided. Obito tried breaking the seal, but they were short on time.

“Our mission is done. Let’s just fucking kidnap him, remove the seal, and dump him on Konoha’s doorstep, unless you feel like homicide,” Kana suggested, earning a frown. He looked around at the corpses, then at the remaining members of the three Prajna teams. He dragged Kakashi up by the chestplate and threw the man over his shoulder, then he pulled Kana into his arms. Kuri gave them a two-fingered salute, and they left the bridge behind for kamui. “Now that we’re in your safe space, maybe you’d like to fill me in on Danzo. I’d really like to know what the hell is going on right now, Obito.”

“Root is an underground operation run by Shimura Danzo. Hiruzen believes the organization was disbanded, but it isn’t. Danzo and I have exchanged words on more than one occasion. We feed each other necessary information for monetary gain or future favors. Right now, I owe him for tipping me off about the jinchuriki in the Land of Earth,” Obito explained, sighing after the words. He still wore the oni mask, and he looked intimidating, even when he was clearly frustrated with their situation. He looked down at Kakashi with narrowed eyes as the man stared into the distance, mind occupied with whatever images Kana had cooked up for him. “It’s a long story. We don’t have time for it right now.”

“We’re making time for it. He’ll be out for a while, and if it’s not enough time, I’ll fucking knock him out again. Keep talking,” Kana frowned, lightly shoving his shoulder. He gave her a look that the mask concealed, then he stooped down to examine the seal. As he looked, he muttered to himself. “I’m not hearing any story, oni-san,” Kana teased him, nudging his ankle with the toe of her right sandal. He sighed again, as if he only knew how to sigh, as if he were so exasperated that he couldn’t fathom explaining everything at length. She didn’t rush him again.

“The Uchiha clan was planning a coup, one you were likely unaware of, due to their views on your family. Hiruzen and the council were aware of the coup, thanks to Shisui and Itachi. Danzo made a move to take Shisui’s eyes, resulting in him either killing himself or being murdered. That was unclear and Itachi clammed up whenever I asked about what had happened that night. Danzo is a manipulative bastard operating under the guise of being the foundation for the village. Root is his brainchild. He drew Kakashi into that mess, and Kakashi doesn’t belong there. The deal was that he left Kakashi alone. I think I need to pay him a visit.”

“I’m going with you,” she added, surprising him. She pursed her lips and looked down at Kakashi’s blank expression. Whatever he saw was peaceful, for his benefit. “Our clan might have been trash, but it was my fucking trash. I’m going to rip out his eyes and feed them to him, and I mean that.” Obito looked up at her to judge the seriousness of her words. When he found that she wasn’t joking, he went back to focusing on the seal.

The seal required all of his attention, so she sat down beside Kakashi and gently closed the man’s eyes. She trusted Obito to remove the seal, but as the minutes dragged on, she began to lose hope. Every frustrated growl was another failed attempt, and there were too many of them. After forty-five minutes, Obito closed Kakashi’s mouth and sat down on the concrete to stare into the darkness. She knew about seals, but she didn’t know enough to decipher one that Obito couldn’t handle himself. The silence just gave her time to think about the seal on Obito’s heart. She wondered if he even knew it existed. They both needed seals removed, and she could think of two people talented enough to do the job. One person was Orochimaru, and the other person was Jiraiya. She hated both options for very different reasons. Orochimaru was a traitorous bastard, and Jiraiya was so loyal to Konoha that it was painful. She settled for absently stroking Kakashi’s hair. If they couldn’t remove the seal, they had the option of killing the one who applied it, therefore breaking the seal off, if he’d used himself as a base. Danzo seemed arrogant enough to do that. She remembered all about his pompous ass. They’d broken into Konoha once with no repercussions. Assassinating the councilman didn’t seem too complicated, but she didn’t know what would happen to the soldiers the man had at his disposal. Would they fight them until the end? Was it even her problem? When she’d tired of stroking Kakashi’s hair, she nodded to herself.

“Let’s kill him. It could break the seal. And if it doesn’t, he still deserves to die.”

“I thought I was finished with Konoha.”

“You are. You’re just not finished with Kakashi.”

Chapter Text

Her old apartment still held the belongings she'd left behind. For a moment, she waited for Yokosuka to greet her; she was slow to remember that she'd trusted Kakashi to take care of the cat. The bed was still made, just the way she left it, though the clock on the bedside table was black. The district no longer had electricity or water, so the whole apartment was dark. They navigated by moonlight, until she'd finally had enough. In those quiet minutes, she could pretend that she'd never been kidnapped at all. In the end, there were things she regretted, but she couldn't say she regretted her decision to go with Obito, not anymore. He'd let her lead the way to her old apartment, let her reminisce about times spent in that apartment, and as they left, he squeezed her shoulder, all of his comfort in that single act. Her apartment wasn't where they needed to be, so she bid a bittersweet goodbye to her old home and started the journey to Kakashi's apartment. She retraced her footsteps, reliving her time before the massacre, and Obito remained silent, letting her process thoughts and feelings she'd buried. Sometimes they were better left buried.

"This is it," Kana said, standing on the doorstep to Kakashi's home. She didn't think she'd ever see it again, but she was wrong. Obito disappeared for a moment, allowing her time to pick the lock. When he reappeared, he had Kakashi over his right shoulder. "There's a light on." She hesitated in the doorway, her hand going to her kunai pouch. Her cloak open, she retrieved a kunai and signed at Obito to wait.

Things had changed. The apartment was still relatively bare, but there were small touches of color that hadn't been there before. The chakra signature in the kitchen was relatively small, likely belonging to a civilian, so she wondered if it was Kakashi's landlord making a late visit. She didn't expect to hear a woman humming. She lowered her kunai and stood in the kitchen doorway, watching the woman cut radishes for a mixing bowl off to the side. The woman wore a pink, frilly apron, and she noticed pink pot holders and pictures of children stuck to the refrigerator with fruit magnets. Kakashi had attempted to move on, but his presence in Root told her that while he may love the woman, he was still unhappy with his life. The floor under her left foot creaked and she tightened her hold on her kunai. She didn't like the anger slowly simmering in her veins. She was jealous. She still wanted Kakashi to want her. She wanted him to think of her, to miss her, to obsess over her.

"Are you going to stand and watch me or are you going to help, sir? The market was out of eggplant, so I was making that salmon dish you said you enjoyed!"

Kana's chest burned. The woman sounded too happy. The scene was too domestic. She could imagine Kakashi returning home, wrapping his arms around the woman, and planting a kiss on her cheek. They would share a delicious meal, and have a quiet evening at home. Sometimes Kakashi just wanted to enjoy the moment. That was like him. She was startled when she felt something brush against her leg, but it was only Yoko. The cat had gotten fat, no doubt due to someone spoiling her. Kana acknowledged her cat by petting her and scratching at her back, then she listened to more cheerful humming. She and Obito needed the apartment. They needed to leave Kakashi somewhere safe. She crossed the kitchen to smell the woman's fruity scent, then she wrapped an arm around the woman and slit her throat. Blood poured onto the radishes and stained the wooden cutting board. The woman didn't belong there. She stabbed the corpse too many times. Obito found her standing over the body.

"You know he's going to be devastated, Kana."

"She didn't belong here. I did him a favor."

"Did you have to stab her so many times?"

"Yes. Let's go. I hate this fucking place."

He didn't comment on the way she stormed out of the kitchen. Obito had left Kakashi on the living room couch and covered the man with a blanket. He'd even removed Kakashi's sandals. They were pathetic. They were selfish. They didn't know how to let go. She removed the genjutsu, but Kakashi remained asleep, blissfully unaware of his dead girlfriend. He would enjoy the sight when he went to make breakfast. It would ruin his day. She hoped the corpse would serve as a warning, because she didn't want him moving on. He wasn't allowed to move on. If he could pine over Obito for about a decade, he could miss her for the rest of his life.

"You were jealous," Obito said, his voice loud in the empty apartment. She frowned at his words, but she didn't argue against his accusation. She'd been jealous. She had no right to be jealous, but that had made no difference. "Are you going to murder everyone he gets involved with?" She approved, even though she didn't voice her response. "You would, wouldn't you?"

"You stalk him."

"I didn't stab his girlfriend fifty-two times."

"Thirty-eight. I got a little carried away."

"She was pretty," Obito shared, further inciting her. She gritted her teeth to keep from snapping at him. The woman had been beautiful, with light blonde hair and olive-green eyes. "She had bigger breasts. I imagine he liked that." She jabbed two fingers into ribs and he slapped her hand aside, continuing. "Maybe he wanted to settle down with her. Is he the type to have kids?" He made her want to go back and stab the woman a few more times.

"I don't give a fuck. We're here for Danzo," she hissed, shoving him towards the front door. He chuckled and tugged on a lock of her hair.

"You're cute when you're jealous, Kana-chan!"

"I'm about to stab you."

She held onto her anger during their trip to Danzo’s home. Tracking the old man was easy enough. Even though she was sure Obito could sense the decrepit man, Obito let her take the lead. While she focused solely on Danzo, Obito made sure they avoided night patrols. They moved through shadows, taking detours to avoid meeting anyone. Tracking Danzo was easy, until they reached the man's street and she surveyed the level of security. Danzo had grown paranoid, but seventeen shinobi was excessive, considering Hiruzen didn't even have that kind of security. She wished she could tag them all and track their positions without trying to follow a mental map of the area. Some shinobi openly patrolled, while others acted like civilians. Obito pinpointed the stationary shinobi and tapped her arm, all the warning she had before he left to take them down.

Obito had wanted to use poison, but Danzo didn't deserve that kind of death, unless it was slow and painful. She preferred strangling the man to death, and Obito had relented, leaving her to enjoy every second of it. She could handle stealthy missions, but it was easier to just barge in and do whatever the hell she wanted. She was strong enough to get away with it; however, Obito wanted to get in and get out with few casualties. Using her sharingan allowed her to avoid sounding the proverbial alarm, but she tried not to use her mangekyou. The mission she'd had in the Land of This was the first instance of blurriness with overuse. From there, her sight had continued to deteriorate. She could use her mangekyou a handful of times, enough to get her through a basic mission. Anything more demanding and she had to keep her sharingan active to see. She hadn't told Obito. She tried not to acknowledge her own fear.

Although killing the shinobi made the mission easier, she followed Obito’s lead and began knocking them out. She dragged their bodies to a dark alleyway and hid them behind a small collection of trash cans. The seventeenth shinobi put up a fight that forced her to kill him, and while she enjoyed winning the fight, she didn’t enjoy ruining her cloak with his blood. It was warm and wet between her fingers, and she wrinkled her nose at the metallic smell. Obito used the sleeve of his cloak to wipe the blood from her face, then he nudged her in the direction of the home. Without seventeen additional chakra signatures, the area felt like a ghost town.

Advancing on the home, Kana took the lead. She wanted to kick the door in, but Obito gave her a disapproving look that had her picking another lock. Breaking into the home was simple, but Danzo had a multitude of seals that they had to break. Seals for silencing. Seals for alerting. Traps for the mediocre. Traps for the advanced. His paranoia exceeded expectations again, and each seal and trap she disarmed frustrated her, because he had her jumping through hoops, as if she were playing an important part in his traveling circus. She heard footsteps overhead, the dull thud of his cane easily giving him away. His chakra signature had changed, the feel of it sending a chill down her spine. She instantly recognized the familiarity, the way his chakra mixed together, separate chakra all contained in one body. He shared something with Obito, something Obito had never mentioned. He'd left her in the dark again, and she hated it. She had more questions than answers, and she hoped to remedy that by torturing Danzo for every bit of information he held. If Obito wouldn’t reveal his hand, Danzo would, given some persuasion.

Obito had traded his oni mask for the mask he wore while parading as Madara. His whole personality changed when he played Madara. The moment the stairs creaked, he placed a hand on Kana’s shoulder and stepped in front of her, making himself the first person Danzo would see standing in the downstairs hallway. With him blocking her view, she drew a kunai and waited to strike. She didn’t expect to see Danzo’s frown, the way the man’s expression turned grim. Danzo knew exactly what had happened to the seventeen shinobi guarding his home, or so he thought. The seal she’d found on the members of Root started with Danzo. The odd signature that reminded her a little of Obito started with Danzo’s right arm, the supporting sling doing nothing to mask the ten similar signatures seemingly embedded in the arm, like crown jewels upon his withering body. But his bandaged eye spoke of more familiarity, because she was certain she’d felt that chakra before, even if she couldn’t summon a name or a face. It wasn’t his chakra. Whatever he had within himself didn’t belong to him. Kakuzu had the hearts of others in his body, and Danzo had something that reminded her of the man.

“You broke into my home,” Danzo stated, catching a glimpse of her standing behind Obito. Obito glanced over his shoulder at her, then stepped aside, allowing her to gain the man’s full attention. “How you’ve fallen,” Danzo frowned, as if the man’s opinion mattered to her. He’d never had her respect, so there was no loss on her part. “You have some nerve coming into my home, Madara. This isn’t how our meetings work.” Obito shrugged his shoulders and looked around the doors leading into other rooms.

“You have a nice home. I felt like letting myself in. This really isn’t a social call though, and I think you know that. The agreement we had was that you were to leave Hatake alone. Don’t you remember the first time we crossed paths?” Kana didn’t know when they’d met before, but she suspected that they’d had some type of agreement in place before the massacre. It was too convenient that no shinobi responded to the slaughter. She tapped Obito’s arm eleven times and he hummed. “You’ve grown greedy,” Obito noted.

“I don’t see how that concerns you.” Danzo tried intimidating them with killing intent that reminded Kana of a poisonous gas in the air. Obito flared his own chakra and ruined any hopes the man had of winning the stand off with such a pathetic display.

“They’re eyes, aren’t they? The chakra isn’t yours. I recognize it. It’s the sharingan.” Kana looked from Danzo’s bandaged eye to the man’s right arm. Fighting him would be a pain, but she knew he wouldn’t give up without a fight. Maybe strangling him to death was out of her reach. With so many sharingan eyes, he already had an advantage. But she wasn’t about to give up and go home. She could have lied to herself and made it about Danzo’s victims, but she’d transferred her anger and hatred at losing her dysfunctional family from Obito to Danzo. It was easier that way. She could hate Danzo with every ounce of herself. “You have the choice of destroying this home and the homes in the immediate vicinity, or we can take this to a training ground. I’m being generous. I still might come back after I kill you and burn this to the ground. Hm, you know, that’s going to happen for sure.”

“Hatake came to me. I wasn’t going to waste the opportunity to obtain such a high-caliber shinobi.” Danzo didn’t display an ounce of emotion on his face, and his tone was dry, as if he looked down on them without even knowing them. It was a rookie mistake, but his paranoia and his arrogance paired well. He’d won eleven times, and Kana vowed that he wouldn’t win again. He would regret his decisions, and she would make sure that he did, in the end. “Did you expect him to abandon his home like Kana did? He’s loyal to this village. He’s exactly what I need in a shinobi, and he’s finally living up to his full potential.”

“Let me see those eyes,” Kana requested, calmly drawing several shuriken. He looked beyond them to the front door, clearly contemplating destroying his own home to murder them. He actually thought he stood a chance. It was a fatal mistake. Obito stopped her from throwing the shuriken, and Danzo calmly walked past them. He chose a training ground, which would give them the space they needed to fight without worrying about his home collapsing around them. “Where did he get the sharingan?” She didn’t care if Danzo overheard her discussion with Obito. She demanded nothing of Obito, because she knew he would react in a poor manner if she showed attitude in front of Danzo. Obito played a perfect role.

“He replaced his right eye with one of Shisui’s. That’s what you feel. The remainder came from one of Orochimaru’s experiments.”

“You knew and you didn’t do anything.”

“It’s never been a problem. I had no attachment to the clan. He upheld his end of the agreement. That’s all I cared about.”

“I,” she began, stopping herself. She didn’t want an argument with Obito, so she fed more anger and hatred into her already stormy feelings about Danzo. Obito poked her right temple and she sighed, her attention straying from him to Danzo. The moment they reached the training ground, she flexed her fingers and cracked her neck, knowing that she needed to be ready for anything. “Don’t destroy Shisui’s eye,” she said, glancing to her right to make sure he heard her words.

“I’m interested in it,” he informed her, meeting her gaze.

He was one to take what he wanted, and she could imagine him taking yet another sharingan. She didn’t know what she would do with the sharingan, if she would demand to keep it for herself or if she would give it to Itachi. He had nothing of Shisui’s. She could understand Danzo’s need for greed, because Shisui had been a shining example of the perfect Uchiha, mentally stable, incredibly intelligent, and gifted. She’d only spoken a handful of words to the kid, but he’d smiled too much, his heart lighter than she could imagine. She wondered if she’d fight Obito for the eye, if she’d go that far just because it was against some moral compass she swore she’d wrecked years ago. Kakashi mattered more than the eye. His freedom meant more to her than she’d ever admit.

She wasn’t surprised that Danzo made the first move. For being old, he was fast, his body not hinting at any limitations. He struck Obito with his cane, but Obito caught it and snapped it in two, then proceeded to stab Danzo in the gut with it. Danzo disappeared in a puff of smoke, and she blocked an attack meant to behead her. She and Obito worked well together, as if they hadn’t spent any time apart. She noticed when he gave her space, when he silently signaled that she could take the lead and let out her pent-up hostility. The first time she struck Danzo, she stabbed him in the heart, and he stepped away from her, unharmed. He’d used kinjutsu to survive, exactly what she’d hoped he wouldn’t. He knew too much about the sharingan. Her mangekyou relied on a precise mixture of physical and spiritual chakra. The genjutsu portion worked on him twice, but she couldn’t pin him down to kill him. When he started using wood release, she finally fit the puzzle pieces together. Danzo and Obito had wood release in common, which had her wondering where they’d both obtained the ability, as neither of them should have had wood release. Obito blocked a strike meant to impale her, and she let him fight while she contemplated her fighting style with Danzo’s strengths and weaknesses.

Danzo relied too much on the sharingan, as evidenced when the third eye closed on the man’s right arm. If they lost, the man would simply return to Orochimaru for more eyes, then she would have to deal with the sannin, and he wasn’t easy to deal with. He hadn’t survived so long on luck alone. She decided to use ninjutsu to support Obito. Her attacks passed right through him and struck Danzo, but the man wouldn’t die. He was a cockroach, in her opinion. She realized too late that Danzo was trying to time Obito’s technique, to expose any weakness that would let the man walk away from the fight. She thought they would have an explosive battle between the three of them, but chakra signatures that had hovered at a distance interrupted the fight, their animal masks and tan coats surprising her until she identified them as Root. With one large fireball, she burnt a path right for them. Some stayed to use water release, but it was in vain. She’d mastered fire, and she wasn’t going to lose to Danzo’s puppets. She heard Obito grunt and she saw the branch sticking out of his gut. Blood dripped onto the ground, showing that he’d been hit. And she saw nothing but red.

The sharingan she’d meant to use sparingly became her first course of action. The spiritual part of her mangekyou only entertained Danzo for a few moments before she lost him, but the physical part of her mangekyou only needed a few moments to act. Overwhelming his mind came easily, but forcing her chakra into his system had her vision blurring. Blood trickled from her right eye as she focused on killing him. She watched two eyes closed, leaving them with three and the eye in his head. He protected that one at all costs. She took a blow to her kidney that had her spinning on her heel to kick the person away. Before she could attack him, Obito caught her waist and pulled her out of the way. It was an Aburame, and not one she wanted to fight. Touching the boy promised death. While Obito fought him, she fought the Yamanaka accompanying him. Mental attacks didn’t work too well when her mind was like a fortress. She had to focus on shielding her own mind from his techniques, because he was proficient in his clan techniques. She gave him credit for being strong, but he was incredibly stupid for working with Danzo. She cut off his right hand and he shouted, drawing the attention of his partner. That was the encouragement Torune needed to strike Obito. Torune’s insects immediately spread across Obito’s arm, so he severed his own arm to avoid the rinkaichu and the venom they produced.

Her vision was blurring, so she knew they had little time left and too many bodies to take down. She whistled and Torune looked at her, all she needed to cast her genjutsu. She watched the rinkaichu slow their progression over his body, then she severed one of his legs. He fell to the ground, bleeding profusely, but he still fought back. A poisonous cloud slowly formed around him, so she covered her nose and mouth and fell back. Obito sliced open Fu’s gut and she threw shuriken to force Fu back.

“This isn’t working!” Frustrated, she ran through the hand seals and slapped her palms onto the ground, raising a thick earth wall to block the strikes of multiple Root members. They needed to kill Danzo. A fist went through her earth wall, so she used her wakizashi to sever the person’s wrist. There were too many chakra signatures, and the ninjutsu traded across the field attracted attention from others in the village. “Cover me,” she called to Obito, intent on ending the fight.

She’d failed with the jinchuriki, but she wasn’t going to fail against Danzo. As Obito distracted the Root members, she engaged in taijutsu with Danzo, where she found he didn’t truly need his cane at all. It was a front. She watched the eyes close, one after another, until she reached forward and ripped the right eye from his head. He fell to his knees and she watched as his wood release went out of control. Whatever had kept the wood release in check had failed. A large tree sprouted from his body. She dodged a blow meant for her heart and punched the masked man so hard that she broke the mask and crushed his nose. Slowly, the Root members realized that their seals had vanished. But the fighting didn’t stop. The conditioning they’d gone through kept them loyal to a dead man. Though she wanted to kill them all, she had to admit that they didn’t have the time. Her vision was poor enough that Obito snuck up behind her and she elbowed him in the stomach, right over his injury. He grabbed her upper arm and they vanished, narrowly avoiding being stabbed from multiple sides.

In kamui, she pushed him away from her and fell to her knees, as if she meant to curl into herself. He placed two fingers under her chin and lifted her head so he could see the blood on her cheeks. Both eyes bled for him. Her own anger and stubbornness had forced her to overwork herself, and she could tell he wasn’t impressed with her. She stared at the frayed end of his cloak, where his right arm used to be. With the mask, he hid his reaction to the fight they’d won. He was close enough that he was clear to her, and she heard him sigh. He reached up to remove his mask and she saw the scowl on his face as he examined her. She’d exhausted herself, but she was relatively unscathed, thanks to him. They needed to check on Kakashi, so he helped her to her feet and brushed the blood from her cheeks using the remaining sleeve of his cloak.

Chapter Text

The flickering fluorescent light added another dimension to the bloody aftermath. They found Kakashi standing over his girlfriend’s corpse, staring down at the blood pooled on the kitchen floor. He’d stepped in it several times, leaving bloody footprints over the hardwood floor, likely trying to move the body, to save a life that Kana had extinguished. She’d felt nothing but simmering rage when she’d killed the woman, but Kana felt some shame at her inability to control herself. Obito stood behind her, both of them in the kitchen doorway, unwilling to draw attention to themselves. Outside, the village sirens wailed, calling for all available shinobi. Inside, the echoes of the sirens bounced off painted walls and shook Kana to her core. Kakashi knew they were there, waiting for a reaction that never came. Obito had warned her that Kakashi would be devastated, and she knew exactly what it felt like, exactly what it looked like. Instead of facing them, Kakashi covered his face with his hands, while Kana studied the bloody footprints on the floor, the way Kakashi had slid. She wondered if the gruesome scene reminded him of the time he found his father’s body. They’d never talked about it. The sex had mattered more. It always mattered more. And maybe that was her fault, but it was all she understood.

“What do you want from me?”

She didn’t know what he hoped to gain from the question, because she didn’t have an answer. Maybe she wanted him. Maybe she wanted him to suffer. Maybe she was just as fucked up as Obito. Two broken people hoped to collect Kakashi’s shattered pieces, to put him back together, to draw him into their chaos. He'd chosen her once, and she wanted him to choose her again and again, for the rest of their miserable lives. She thought looking at Obito would help her find the answer Kakashi wanted, but he just stared at her, silently willing her to say something, to do something. Kakashi let his hands fall, then he tipped his head back to stare at the flickering light. Kana wondered if it needed to be tightened. It was easier to focus on the light than the dead look in Kakashi's visible eye.

"Did you love her, Kakashi?" She didn't know why she asked when she already knew the answer. But he shook his head, and he looked even more miserable after the admission.

"I could have," he said, his voice rough in the silence between the sirens. "Her name was Botan. She was a math teacher at the civilian school. I don't know what she saw in me, but she was kind, funny, and patient. She didn't care that I was a shinobi and she knew nothing about that side of my life." Kakashi turned to face them and she saw the flicker of anger in his eye when he saw Obito. She thought he might accuse Obito of killing Botan, but his attention quickly shifted to her, and she immediately broke eye contact. There was no good reason for the woman's death. "Why?"

"Tell him the truth," Obito urged her, the calm in his voice a front for his own curiosity.

He didn't think she would tell the truth. She didn't know anything beyond her own jealousy and bitterness. Maybe she wanted him. Maybe she thought that she could destroy everyone and everything in his life and whisk him away for a new beginning. Akatsuki would become his new dawn. Maybe she was a little delusional. Maybe hope had tainted her. They expected her to fully understand her motives because jealousy alone didn't explain her reaction. Kana picked at her nails, wanting something to distract her. Obito nudged her back, so she shot him a dirty look. Neither of them had endless patience.

"I hate the idea that you've moved on. It makes me so fucking angry. She didn't deserve you. No one deserves you."

"You think I've moved on?"

"Another woman was living with you, so yes! You fucking moved on, Kakashi!"

"You still love me."

"I hate you," she hissed, trying to turn away. Obito turned her back around so she was forced to face Kakashi. She crossed her arms over her chest to shield herself from the world. Behind her, Obito had a hand pressed against her lower back. He wasn't angry. He wasn't surprised. "I hate you," she repeated, not even convincing herself. "I hate the things you make me feel. I want it to stop hurting. You tried to kill me, for fuck's sake!"

"What do you want from me? I'll already spend the rest of my life missing Obito and Rin. Should I spend the rest of my life pining for you?" Obito removed his hand from her lower back and she threw him a look that had him shaking his head. She let her arms fall so she could clench her fists at her sides. "Is this how you show your love now?"

"Stupid question."

"Do you love him?"

"Stupid question."

"You aren't answering any of them. You're purposely dodging them."

Obito’s hand returned to her lower back, forcing her to continue looking at Kakashi; she felt completely naked, bare before their eyes. Even though they'd seen every part of her, she still felt exposed for the very first time. She still loved Kakashi. And that didn't detract from her feelings for Obito. Her chest burned, and it wasn't from her sternum. The stupid questions circled around and around in her head, until she finally growled in frustration. She felt like crossing the kitchen just to slap him, to punch him, to kick him, to stab him. She didn't move though. Obito’s hand kept her from turning away, but it also grounded her.

"Why don't you come with us? What else is left for you here? Help us bring peace to the world." It was the first time Obito had spoken to Kakashi there. She loathed the idea of being around Kakashi, even as she wanted him closer. Her conflicting emotions had her glaring at Botan's body. "There's a place for you in Akatsuki, Kakashi."

"What else is left," she heard Kakashi mumble. Killing Gai would likely put him over the edge, but she still considered it. "We'll keep meeting like this until one of us dies," he informed her, as if she hadn't already known the fact.

Obito wanted him to defect because of selfish reasons, and she had the same reasons. She could imagine sharing her life with them, where they bickered and fought and fucked and made something good out of the ashes of the burning shinobi world. She wanted that. The feelings those thoughts evoked had her relaxing her fists. She wanted to go back to violence to avoid them, because they truly scared her. Obito didn't stop her when she turned her back to Kakashi to capture his attention. She knew he would use the same lines he'd used on her, but she didn't know if they would ever work on someone still blinded by loyalty. Her hands went to his mask and he didn't move. Almost two years had passed since they'd first met. He was twenty-three and still running, twenty-three and still hiding. They both knew how she felt about them. She wanted a big reveal, to expose Obito’s identity and his feelings for Kakashi.

"I guess it's my turn?" He sounded sure of himself, but she knew he wanted to refuse her. When it came to Kakashi, Obito liked to shut down. And she wasn't much better. She could have ripped the mask from his head, but she didn't. He had an opportunity to deny her. He had an opportunity to disappear.

"I'm not going to force you to do this. If you want to go, we'll go. It's your choice," she softly spoke, waiting for him to pull away. He surprised her when he caught her hands. She expected him to squeeze them, to hurt her, to take her into kamui, where he would rage and mourn until all that was left was emptiness. "Are we going to run away again?" She whispered to him, even though she pretended they were the only two people in the world.

"You'd never let me hear the end of it," he replied. There was a quirk of her lips, then he released her hands. He was the one to remove his mask, and she took it from his hands. She heard a shaky inhale, then a thump, where Kakashi had stumbled backwards, slipped in Botan's blood, and slammed into the counter. "It's been a long time."

Kana closed her eyes and turned back around. She counted to ten, prayed to gods she didn't believe in, and took in the sight of Kakashi's pale face. Neither man moved, both of them seemingly rooted to the spot. Kakashi tried to speak, but no words came from his parted lips. There was another shaky breath, another moment where she thought he would faint. When the shock had passed, he changed, his expression turning grim. Kana knew it was an important moment. Kakashi knew the truth, that Obito hadn't died that day. He had the choice to share the information with the Hokage. The hunter nin would delight in more work dumped in their laps. She wondered if she would regret Obito’s reveal. Someone pounded on the front door and the noise startled them. Their time had come to an end. Kakashi had never answered Obito.

"It's Gai," she shared. She expected Kakashi to look away, but he didn't. The pounding didn't stop, and Gai began calling Kakashi's name. Kana placed Obito’s mask back on and they prepared to leave.

"Meet me at the memorial stone." She nodded, all the sign he received before he began to clean the blood from his feet. Obito looped an arm around her waist. The last thing she saw was Kakashi's frown. She wondered if he really meant to join them.

At the training ground, she didn't know what to say to Obito. Where she'd expected a mess of thoughts and feelings, she only felt their absence. There was nothing they could do but wait. They masked their chakra signatures and hid in the trees that never lost their leaves. In Konoha, it always felt like an endless loop of spring and summer. She almost missed it. As they waited, she watched the shinobi search the numerous training grounds in the area. They'd already searched around the memorial stone, so the place was quiet, the absence of the wind making the air feel stagnant. Though she frowned into the darkness, she took Obito’s left hand in hers. They still needed to address his missing arm, but the bleeding that had occurred had stopped, and the wound he received from Danzo’s wood release had already healed. They began a waiting game that had her on edge. If Obito was bothered by their hand holding, he didn't complain.

"He might decide to stay. You have to be prepared for the possibility."

"Don't you think I fucking know that? I'm prepared."

"Yeah, it seems that way."

"Fine. I'm not, alright?"

He squeezed her hand and she huffed at his attempt to comfort her. She was more concerned about Kakashi running to the Hokage. Obito’s identity wasn't something to reveal to an enemy, and Kakashi was still an enemy, despite the fact that they both toed the line. If Kakashi chose to stay, she would have to alter his memory, and the thought alone made her feel terrible. He'd refused her once before, when she'd betrayed the village. If he fought her, she could cause permanent brain damage. Such delicacy had never mattered more. Her weakness had led them down that proverbial road. She'd tried and failed to get rid of him. Repeatedly. Obito squeezed her hand again and she sighed.

"If he decides to stay, I'll alter his memory of the night. If I have to, I'll raise this village. I don't think this place will accept Tsuki no Me anyway," she thought aloud, turning her head so she could see his profile. He hummed at her words. The project mattered less than Obito. How many ways could she prove it? She wouldn't let Kakashi ruin Obito’s plans, even if she couldn't kill the man. "You don't regret it, do you?"

"No, I don't regret it. It's done now. There's nothing I can do to change it. It would depend on you." He checked on the remainder of his right arm and sighed at the damage. Replacing it was a minor setback, one he would have rather avoided. He hadn't anticipated the Aburame, an error on his part. "I'm still angry."

"Welcome to the club," she muttered, earning an elbow to her side. He'd snorted though, because it was amusing to know they felt the same way about Kakashi, both of them unwilling to say that they loved him, both of them bitter over things they couldn't change. "Thank you for saving my life," she managed, feeling better about the change in subject. He didn't respond, but his response didn't matter. They both knew he'd saved her life anyway. "I have Shisui's eye in my storage scroll."

"When were you going to tell me your vision was getting blurry?"

"I have it under control."

"You don't have to lie to me, Kana. How bad is it?"

"It's only bad when I overuse my mangekyou. I used it too many times in the fight. The memorial stone? It looks like a blob."

"I'll take care of it," he promised, as if he could magically restore her sight. It didn't work that way. He could implant eyes all he wanted. Then it hit her why he'd collected her family's eyes. He'd known. She didn't want to think of their corpses whenever she opened her eyes or used her sharingan. "He's here." The feel of Kakashi’s lightning greeted her. She'd missed his approach altogether. Obito jumped from the tree, so she followed. The thought of her family's eyes stayed with her.

Kakashi had a bag on his back and one hand tucked into his pants pocket. She knew his plans before he could share them; Kakashi meant to go with them. She shouldn't have, but she extended her chakra and felt for his eternal rival. He hadn't killed Gai, not that she could fault him for not hurting the man. In the end, they all had weaknesses. Her weaknesses stood near her. Maybe she should have crossed the distance between Kakashi and herself, maybe thrown her arms around him or sobbed or kissed him. She stayed beside Obito and watched Kakashi silently bid goodbye to the memorial stone. The village had meant everything to him, even though it had thoroughly destroyed him. The stone didn't deserve a farewell moment. The village didn't deserve any more of him. It had already taken too much.

"Let's get the fuck out of here. Mourn while we're moving, Kakashi."

"I think I missed your attitude most of all."

"Don't we all," Obito muttered, receiving a bony elbow to his ribs. He hissed and punched her upper arm, so she flicked his left ear. Kakashi turned his back to the stone, just as he turned his back on the village. "It gets easier," Obito promised him, having no attachment to Konoha. Kakashi wasn't like him though. Kana wondered if Kakashi would ever truly leave Konoha. It would likely follow him, as her family's deaths followed her.

"What happened to your arm?" Kakashi finally noticed the frayed sleeve on Obito’s right side. Without thinking, Kana moved to Obito’s right, walking on his weaker side. If Kakashi noticed, he didn't say anything.

"It's a long story," Obito admitted, not bothering to look at the man. "Maybe Kana would like to grace us with a quick summary of the past twenty-four hours?" She shot him a dirty look, one he didn't see, then she turned her head toward Kakashi, who walked to her left. They looked terrible, and anyone would have questioned their poor formation.

"We kidnapped you, Botan died," she began, cut off with a cough from Obito. She gritted her teeth, then she released a breath. "Fucking fine. I stabbed your girlfriend a few times, then we went after Danzo. I'm sure we burned through a good portion of his forces, I ripped out the eye that did not belong to him, he turned into a tree, Obito lost his arm to Torune, I thoroughly wrecked him for it, and now we're here, kidnapping you again." Kakashi stared at her for a few minutes, clearly trying to piece together the picture based on minimal details. Obito leaned forward to see Kakashi's blank expression, then he chuckled.

"You didn't kidnap me," Kakashi disagreed. The words made her feel better about their night. She'd thought that revealing Obito’s identity would be manipulating him, but he didn't seem to think so. She asked herself if she even cared if it had been a manipulation tactic. "You know we're going to talk about the fact that I thought you were dead, Obito, and the fact that you've known about him for years and never said anything, Kana." He gave them an eye smile that turned her expression sour. Sometimes he just got on her nerves.

Chapter Text

They stopped several hours outside of Konoha, still deep in the Land of Fire. The weather had turned, the chilly wind and endless sheets of cold rain driving them to look for decent shelter. Kana didn’t know the name of the village they found, and she didn’t care enough to ask. She wanted to get out of the rain and fog that reminded her too much of Amegakure. None of them wanted to scour the village for suitable lodgings, so they stopped at the first motel they found. The building was concrete and had a sign above the door that hung at an angle, as if one good breeze would bring it down. She didn’t know the name of the village, but she knew the name of the motel. The writing on the sign was smudged in key places, but the name ended with cloud. Kakashi tried to make the argument that they weren’t presentable enough, but Kana shoved him aside and went into the lobby, leaving the two men to follow her. There was a moment where she thought they would wait outside, but Kakashi caught the door behind her. The inside was warm, but the building left a lot to be desired. Every breeze had the windows shaking, and little drafts had decorative scented candles flickering. It smelled like jasmine though, and the scent alone was enough to keep her from complaining about the place.

Their room was on the second floor, something Kakashi had negotiated while she’d hovered around one of the lit candles. Before they could climb the stairs, she felt a hand on her lower back, then a warm breath on her right ear. “I need to replace my right arm,” Obito said, his visible eye on Kakashi climbing the stairs. She didn’t want to be left alone with Kakashi. She didn’t want to answer all of his questions. But she knew Obito needed a right arm if he intended on being even slightly useful in a fight with hunter nin. “I’ll be back later.” Obito kissed her cheek, then he disappeared. When Kakashi noticed they weren’t following him, he descended the stairs and looked around for them. She waved him off and they both went upstairs together.

Kakashi stopped her from falling down the stairs when she missed a step. She could tell he wanted to ask about her well being, but he just tugged her along, his hand warm in hers. The room they shared wasn’t large, but two beds managed to fit in the room. There was no desk or chair, nothing but two paintings on the plain, white walls. One painting showed a sunrise over a mountain range, while the other showed a boat at sea. The paintings were old, and the air in the room was stale, as if the room had been vacant for quite some time, but it still seemed perfect. Kakashi slipped off his sandals, while she flung hers into the corner and forgot about them. She leaned her wakizashi against the wall beside the bed she claimed, then she worked on removing her soaked cloak. Underneath, she still wore the clothing of the Prajna Group. She hadn’t found the time to change. They’d kidnapped Kakashi, and everything after that had happened too fast. How she’d looked made no difference.

“He left,” Kakashi said, sitting down on the edge of his bed. She hummed in response, because she understood exactly how he felt. In the end, Obito always left. Even though he’d told her he would return, there was a chance he wouldn’t return at all. She’d grown used to him flitting in and out of her life. “I’m not going to interrogate you, Kana,” Kakashi reassured her, falling back onto the bed. She considered reminding him that his wet clothing would make the sheets damp, but she sighed and sat down on her own bed. They would both deal with damp sheets. It was that kind of day.

“Just let me get a shower and we can talk, alright?” She didn’t move from her spot. She’d hoped her own words would motivate her enough to get her going, but she found herself staring at the hardwood beneath her feet. The other bed squeaked and she looked over at Kakashi. He’d rested a hand beneath his head, his visible eye trained on the ceiling. He would have to strike a line through his hitai-ate, if he had the strength to put his abandonment on display. She wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t. “You aren’t going to regret this, are you? There’s no turning back from this. You can never go back,” she frowned, curling her toes. She needed to repaint her nails. The red on her toes matched the red of her eyes. She felt his eyes on her, but she didn’t look up. “Do you even believe in world peace?”

“After everything I’ve been through? No, I don’t.”

“Obito can paint a pretty picture.”

“I’m sure he can. That doesn’t mean he’s going to change my mind. Do you believe in world peace?”

“I believe in Obito. And yes, I know it’s not the same thing.”

“I’m not going to regret my decision, Kana. Maybe this was long overdue,” he admitted, turning his head to the side to see her. She could pretend that they’d never fought, that she’d never left. She watched him remove his hitai-ate and brush his fingers over the symbol etched into the metal. He still wanted to be in Konoha. He didn’t have to say the words to show it. His heart would always be with the village. They both tried to speak at the same time, but she stopped and motioned with a hand for him to continue. “I guess I’m part of a terrorist organization now,” he sighed, his left eye still shut. The scar over his closed eye stood out in the dim light of the room. She ran her fingers through her hair, silently working the knots from the strands.

"It could be worse. I guess I should use some euphemisms to brainwash you into thinking you got something out of this mess," she joked, rolling her eyes at the words. She heard him chuckle and her lips twitched for a smile. "I know you're only here because of Obito." He frowned behind his mask and sat up, as if he meant to disagree with her, but she shook her head at him. "I'm very aware of how you feel about him, and I'm not a complete idiot. You saw him and threw it all away for him. That's pretty pathetic, if you ask me."

"Kana, that's not what happened."

"Don't you fucking lie to me. Just don't."

"Wait." He caught the bathroom door before she could close it in his face. She pressed harder on the door, but he had enough strength left to keep her there. "I don't remember you being this frustrating," he sighed, forcing the door open. He tried to touch her, so she slapped his hand away. "I never moved on. I'm right here." She remembered the way Botan looked on the kitchen floor, and the pictures of small children on his refrigerator. Maybe he would have had his own genin team. Maybe they'd truly ruined his life. When he touched her shoulders, she frowned, but she didn't pull away.

"I'm happy."

"I know."

"I don't want you anymore."

"I know."

"Get the fuck out of my bathroom so I can shower in peace," she huffed, shoving him away from her. He made no move to leave, so she shoved him out of the bathroom and closed the door. She stood there for too long, trying to make sense of her jumbled thoughts and feelings. She wanted Obito there to make it bearable. She wanted someone to tell her what to do, because she didn't know what to do. "Go sit down. I know you're still standing outside of the door. Men are so fucking stupid." She heard his footsteps as he walked away, then she took a deep breath and turned on the shower. The shower chased the chill away, but it didn't give her the warmth she craved. She smelled like hibiscus again, and that had to be enough.

As she left the bathroom, she saw Kakashi standing by the window, the blinds drawn to reveal the heavy rainfall outside. She crossed the room and pulled the covers down on her bed so she could slip beneath the sheets. He continued staring out the window, a faraway look in his visible eye. She tried to think of something to say to him, but her accusations still remained at the forefront of her mind. He would always choose Obito. She wondered if she should have killed him when she first had the chance. He would have died loving her. She reached over to the bedside table and fumbled for the light switch until she cast them into darkness. Kakashi finally looked away from the window, but she couldn't see much without the light. Her eyes ached.

"Botan hated tea. I didn't think it was possible. And she loved children. She wanted some of her own." Kana didn't know why he decided to talk about his dead girlfriend, a woman he'd said he didn't love; she didn't know why she still listened to him. "She was everything you weren't, because I didn't want to think about you anymore. We had every opportunity to kill each other, but we didn't. I could have killed you both. And you still want me."

"You're tired, Kakashi," she interrupted him, purposely cutting off his thoughts. His shoulders fell and he moved away from the window. She bit down on her lower lip, waiting several minutes before she broke the silence. "We're probably going to end up stuck together. You know that, don't you?" He didn't answer, so she reached out with her senses to pinpoint him in the dark. He was sitting on his bed, so she turned onto her side to face him. "You asked me two stupid questions when we were at your place. Yes, I show my love in unorthodox ways. And yes, I do love him, enough to kill every person in this forsaken world."

"You still love me."

"Does it really matter?"

"Yes, it does."

"Goodnight, Kakashi."

She turned her back to him and pulled the covers up over her shoulders. His bed squeaked as he moved, then she heard his light footsteps and the quiet click of the bathroom door. She fell asleep to the sound of the shower running and woke up several hours later to an arm draped over her waist. Squinting, she looked at the bedside clock and sighed through her nose. She smelled amber and orchids and she breathed in Obito’s scent. He muttered at her to go back to sleep, so she closed her eyes. She woke up to Kakashi shaking her shoulder. She'd overslept, and she was annoyed that they'd let her sleep. Obito emerged from the bathroom, his orange, swirly mask on his face, so she knew it was going to be a long day. She threw the covers off herself and started going through one of her storage scrolls for clothing. While she looked, she tried to ignore the awkward silence in the room. She didn't need to ask to know that the two hadn't talked. Obito likely expected her to do all of the talking.

In the bathroom, she changed into her romper and put on a dry cloak, then she brushed her hair. She couldn't hear talking from the other side of the door, so she frowned at her reflection. Obito would probably go to his grave before talking about how he felt, and even though Kakashi handled feelings better, Kakashi wasn't ready to broach the subject he insisted on shoving down her throat. They were utterly hopeless. When she was ready, she sealed away her belongings and went to retrieve her wakizashi. The two sat on different beds, Obito facing one direction and Kakashi facing another.

"Look, we all have feelings for one another. It's annoying as fuck, and will likely make working together ten times harder than it should be. I'm not dealing with this weird shit for the rest of the trip. If we're being polyamorous, that's fine, but we're on a tight schedule. Worry about it later. Act like you have some sense and let's go."

"Way to ruin the moment." She didn't appreciate Obito’s attempt at humor, so she shot him a scathing look.

"We were fine." Kakashi was clearly lying, but she wasn't surprised. He sighed when he saw the same expression on her face. "Alright. Let's move this along. Where are we going? Obito? You don't know, do you? Kana? Why are you looking at Obito?" Kakashi rubbed his right temple and she turned her head away to hide her blush. Obito didn't care, as evidenced by the shrug of his shoulders.

"We were supposed to be running from hunter nin, so I didn't have a specific destination in mind," Obito admitted. Kana had assumed he'd had a plan for them. "We could change course and head back to Amegakure. There are other missions to assign. Maybe there's something for the two of you."

"You're dumping him on me."

"That's very rude, Kana. But yes, I am. I have other things to handle, like giving false leads to Jiraiya's spies."

"Fine, but I want an umbrella. I'm tired of the damn rain ruining my hair and clothes."

"Fine. Go get an umbrella. Kakashi, go with her."

Chapter Text

Nothing ever changed in Amegakure. Maybe that was why she couldn’t stand it. Under her red umbrella, the rain didn’t bother her, so she kept her complaints to herself. Supposedly, Obito had gone ahead to have a discussion with Pein about Kakashi’s sudden inclusion in the group, but being greeted by Konan had her questioning if he’d lied. Konan didn’t acknowledge her presence, the woman’s full attention on Kakashi. She gave Kakashi credit for maintaining his nonchalant air, because Akatsuki always preyed on weakness. As they walked to the tower to meet with Pein, Kakashi stared at the back of Konan’s head, his feelings on the silent introduction buried beneath a deep frown. The outline of his lips beneath the mask told her all she needed to know. Pein’s impending reaction weighed on her, making her question if she’d defend Kakashi or let him bear the burden of standing alone. It was a stupid thought, in the end, because she had no intention of letting Pein mistreat Kakashi. Kakashi belonged to her, whether he knew it or not, and she didn’t let others play with her belongings. Kana didn’t like sharing. As it was, the complicated mess of romantic feelings she, Obito, and Kakashi shared tested her limits. No, Kana wouldn’t let anything happen to Kakashi. No one would hurt him, except herself.

Pein looked at them as if they were bugs, but she wasn’t surprised. Kakashi clearly hadn’t expected the man’s rinnegan eyes, so she nudged his thigh with her closed umbrella and he buried his shock beneath a look of indifference. She remembered the first time she’d seen the powerful eyes. They didn’t intimidate her as much, since she knew Obito planned on ripping them out of Pein’s skull. Despite the fact that Obito had hinted at his real place in the organization, she knew Kakashi hadn’t fully grasped the true power dynamics. Pein looked at them as if they were bugs, but he was the true bug. It was a complex play that soon bored her. She didn’t expect Pein to ignore her presence; she didn’t appreciate the man’s focus on Kakashi. Pein likely suspected he was a spy, just like he suspected Itachi was a spy. In her very bones, she knew he wouldn’t betray them. He’d proven it on more than one occasion. Whether he did it out of some sense of protecting her or the romantic feelings he said he still held for her, she didn’t know. As Pein judged Kakashi, she felt for the multiple chakra signatures throughout the building. For once, they were absent. They walked the streets of Amegakure. Pein knew when her concentration went to the other chakra signatures, because his purple eyes moved to her. Scowling, she stopped extending her senses and switched her focus to Kakashi’s chakra signature. She played nice.

“I don’t trust you, but you should already know that,” Pein spoke, his dead gaze boring into Kakashi. She didn’t care if Pein trusted Kakashi, as long as the man didn’t cause trouble for them. The doubt she’d had regarding Obito’s previous meeting with Pein disappeared. The man just didn’t appreciate another stray being dragged in. She still recalled his reaction to Itachi’s presence. “I suspect he is your responsibility now. I don’t trust you either.” She rolled her eyes at him and Konan fixed her with a hard stare. The feeling was mutual. After knowing Obito’s feelings for the man, she didn’t trust Pein either. It was a mutual agreement to use one another. Nothing more. “You two will be meeting with the Kazekage and the daimyo of Wind to negotiate a deal between the Land of Rice Fields and the Land of Wind.”

“We’re representing the Land of Rice Fields now?” She hummed, remembering the mission assigned to Orochimaru and Sasori. The meeting with the daimyo must have gone better than expected. Sunagakure had little to offer though, with its struggling economy. She would have ranked it as the lowest great nation, just for the fact that it had never been as strong as the other nations. The hidden village had struggled since the very beginning. “This is about the food shortages. What can we hope to gain from this?” Pein looked from Kakashi to her, but he didn’t answer. Unlike Obito, he was unwilling to share even a crumb of information. At least Obito gave her something. She sighed through her nose and lightly nudged Kakashi’s left side. “Let’s just get out of here,” she mumbled, already turning on her heel.

“This mission is very important to the organization. Make sure it is successful.”

“Yeah, yeah. I got it.”

Kana accepted the mission scroll Konan offered ger, then she waved a hand at Pein, dismissing his words. As she walked away, Kakashi followed her from the room. She felt better without the rinnegan staring them down, but she’d wanted to know more about the inner workings. Without Obito, she had no further information, and the mission seemed pointless to her. She hated dealing with the fourth Kazekage. Rasa was a prick. He was a horrible father, which he made up for by being a shrewd leader. He and the daimyo of Wind got along well, because they were both obsessed with the idea of growing their nation’s power. She suspected if they gained the power they wanted, they would resume the battle for land that had been the focus of the Third Shinobi War. She wondered if Obito simply wanted to collect another nation, even without using a genjutsu to manipulate the two men. She didn’t know what Orochimaru’s mission entailed, but she suspected it had to do with strengthening the Land of Rice Fields. In the end, everyone wanted power.

Outside, she opened her red umbrella and Kakashi opened his black one, both of them shielding themselves from the heavy rain. They needed more supplies for the mission, hopefully a chakra blade for Kakashi, something she could afford with the money given to her by Obito. Kakashi remained quiet, his expression blank, but she knew he was thinking, always thinking. He was a brilliant strategist, extremely intelligent, and she’d always liked that about him. He wasn’t a terrible partner, even though she’d originally hated the idea of being stuck with him. She didn’t want to deal with the tense atmosphere that seemed to surround them. They had unresolved issues, the same ones they’d had before her departure from Konoha. She loved him, and he loved her, and they were getting nowhere. She licked her lips to distract herself from her thoughts, then she pointed to a weapons shop that she frequented when she visited the hidden village. He clearly questioned her decision to stop, because he already had a tanto and his other shinobi tools. He opened the door for her and she closed her umbrella and stepped inside. They both left their soaked umbrellas by the door to keep from tracking water throughout the building.

“I want to get you a chakra blade. It’s made to conduct lightning chakra, unlike the traditional tanto you carry. You know how many blades you go through when it’s not a chakra blade. I don’t even know why you insist on avoiding them. They’re expensive, but you were well paid.” She led the way to a small section of wall space dedicated to chakra blades, from kunai and shuriken to swords. She couldn’t see his face to know his reaction, but she felt his hand on her right elbow.

“The last chakra blade I owned belonged to my father.” The mood between them instantly plummeted. They didn’t talk about his father. Sakumo was a topic she avoided because too many emotions were involved with opening that proverbial box. He’d shared it willingly, showing that he’d changed too. She sighed through her nose and took his hand, pulling him toward her. They stood beside one another and she pointed to the wall.

“This one will be all yours,” she told him, trying to get him to see the potential in blazing his own trail. He stared at the numerous weapons, then he turned his head to smile at her. She didn’t know whether the smile was genuine or fake, but she didn’t care. He’d smiled, for whatever reason. “You’ve changed,” she managed to say, feeling odd just admitting the words. She knew she’d changed too, for better or worse. They didn’t talk about a lot of things, or they hadn’t, but he seemed more willing to address certain subjects. She wondered if Botan had something to do with that, or if it was the freedom from Root and ANBU. He continued browsing the weapons, occasionally pulling some down to test them in the air. “Was it Botan?” She couldn’t help herself. Her words made him stop, though he didn’t look at her.

“Yes and no. I was in a bad place for a long time. She helped, but I still ended up with Danzo, didn’t I? I saw things I never thought I would see in a place that had my love and loyalty. He kidnapped children from orphanages. He experimented on some of them. He kept them in solitary confinement to break them. He tortured them until they forgot who they even were. I’ve never had this kind of freedom before. I realize that now. When you first joined Akatsuki, you didn’t choose to be here. I chose to be here.” He showed her a tanto that he liked and sent his chakra through the blade until she could see the beginning of sparks. She’d always liked his chakra signature. His lightning was something to witness. It was beautiful, just like him.

“You chose us. There’s a difference,” she informed him, waiting for the sparks to disappear. He offered her the tanto by its hilt and she accepted it without comment. It was the first time she acknowledged to him that he didn’t just choose Obito. For once, she didn’t feel the stirrings of jealousy. She turned the blade over to see both sides, then she began admiring the weapons for herself. “I’m sorry,” she said, her voice low. His head whipped to the side and she saw the shock on his face, even with the mask. She nudged the toe of her right sandal against the hardwood floor. “I didn’t treat you the way you deserved.”

“I’m sorry too.” He reached around her to grab some standard shuriken and she hummed, her attention shifting from his face to the tanto in her hand. He rested a hand on her shoulder and she raised her eyes to meet his gaze. “Do you want anything?” A small smile graced her lips, because she appreciated the subject change. The apology had tasted terrible on her tongue, but she’d meant the words. They both handled things poorly. She grabbed some more kunai and lightly knocked the ring of a kunai against his upper arm. “Ah, now might be a terrible time to mention this, but I am a little short on ryo,” he began, rubbing the back of his head.

“Of course you are. I didn’t expect you to fund this trip. Obito gave us money for weapons, which means he pried the ryo from Kakuzu’s hands. You owe him your left nut for it,” she joked, playfully pinching his cheek. He sighed at her, then he took her hand in his and tugged her in the direction of the front counter. “Wait,” she said, squeezing his hand. He looked back at her and she saw the confusion in his eye. “If you ever need to talk,” she began, cut off by his quiet chuckling.

“I’ll talk to you.”

“Fuck no. I was going to suggest you talk to Obito.”

When they left the shop, they reopened their umbrellas and started the journey to the village exit. Kakashi had his new tanto sheathed on his back, while she’d added her new kunai to the pouch strapped to her thigh. She wasn’t looking forward to the deserts of Wind, but she saved all of her complaints for when they first saw sand. She’d assumed that the silence would be awkward, but she didn’t mind it, and Kakashi seemed perfectly content with it. The moment they crossed onto dry land, she breathed a sigh of relief. She accepted Kakashi’s damp umbrella and added both of them to a storage scroll for the next time they saw rain. As a child, she used to love rain, but that had changed the moment she’d had to camp out in the mud. She’d never told Kakashi about those times. He had a part of herself that she hadn’t shared with Obito. Kakashi had known her parents, how unbearable her mother had been, how stern her father had been. He’d always have that part of her. As they walked, she contemplated starting a conversation, but she didn’t know where to begin. They knew one another, but they didn’t, not anymore.

“What did you do with Yokosuka?” He smiled beneath his mask and she looked away, unwilling to see the amusement revealed in the skin he did show. “I hope you didn’t just release her,” she added, already jumping to conclusions. He shook his head at her, but she still waited for him to respond.

“I left her with Gai. I told him I had a mission and I needed someone to look after her for a while.”

“You lied to your super best friend forever?”

“Eternal rival. And yes, I did. I didn’t want to hurt him.” He'd told her he wouldn't regret his decision, but he'd always had a weird bond with Gai, the man willing to follow Kakashi to hell and back. Those kinds of bonds were difficult to break. She understood why he chose to lie. "I didn't say anything to my team. There hadn't been time. I would have lied to them too. There are some things they wouldn't understand. You called it indoctrination, and you aren't wrong." He shrugged a shoulder, as if severing every bond he had in Konoha had been simple. Effortless.

"Obito always went back to see you. We may not be able to reveal ourselves, but we can always go back and check on your friends, Kakashi." She didn't want to go back to Konoha, but if he wanted to, she knew she would go with him. He hadn't known about Obito watching over him, but he took it well. "I imagine this is a lot for you to handle. You just found out your crush is alive after thinking he was dead for a decade, you abandoned the only home you've ever known, and now you're here, dancing around feelings like the rest of us." He chuckled and shook his head at her, but she was trying to be supportive. She hadn't had that kind of support when she'd been dropped into the snake den.

"I'm fine."

"You're a filthy fucking liar, but what else is new."

"I'll be fine."

As soon as they crossed the border to the Land of Wind, the hot desert wind greeted them. She already hated the mission, but she managed to dig deep enough to find even more hatred. Kakashi looked silly in the straw hat he wore, but she didn't look much better. The hats helped with the sun beating down on them, but goggles would have been a better investment. Whenever the wind blew, the sand stirred around her feet and took flight. Between the bright sun, the overall heat, and the sand between her toes, she was miserable. Sunagakure was a wasteland of a place. She couldn't afford to have her attitude ruin negotiations, so she hoped stomping through the desert landscape would release some of her irritation. When the wind caught her hat and blew it from her head, she sighed. Kakashi managed to catch it and placed it back on her head, tipping it slightly to make it more difficult for the wind to catch it again. To pass the time, she tried to focus on spotting things in the distance. When that failed, she removed the mission scroll from her kunai pouch and passed it to him, silently shifting the control from herself.

"What happened in the Land of Rice Fields?" She'd wondered the same thing. She didn't have an answer for him, but she slowed down to walk beside him. He poked her side with the scroll and she swatted at him, but he dodged.

"Orochimaru and Sasori had a mission to negotiate with the Land of Rice Fields. I don't know the specifics, but something obviously went well, since we have this Suna mission. Some kind of power play? I don't know. Obito gives me more information than Pein. Pein doesn't care for me, and it's mutual," Kana said, wrinkling her nose at the mere thought of the man. She really wished she saw the whole picture. He made a noise to let her know he'd heard her. "Anything enlightening in that scroll?"

"Mission parameters. We have the right to negotiate for the daimyo of Rice, and there are limitations for what we can offer. The daimyo is offering so much land in exchange for," Kakashi stopped and stared at the scroll. She could tell by his expression that he didn't like the mission anymore. "People. We're trading land for people to add to the population in the Land of Rice Fields. It's all rural areas in Rice. It holds up to its name. Why would they want more people?"

"This should have belonged to Sasori and Orochimaru, but Sasori had to kill the last Kazekage, so he's not allowed in the walls of Sunagakure. I don't like how this mission sounds. How many of these people are going to willingly give up their homes and relocate?"

"This is a perfect first mission."

"It's shit. Look, it's not always this way. I've had some pretty good missions, like the time," she trailed off, trying her hardest to think of a decent mission that differed from missions in ANBU. She thoroughly enjoyed some missions, but she wasn't sure how he would react. Did he honestly think the missions would be better than what they were in Konoha? "I enjoy some missions. If you aren't up for this, we can bitch to Obito until he gets pissed off enough to shut us up with a new mission."

"Why would we complain to him?"

"Pein is known as the leader, but he isn't really the leader. The real leader is Obito, though they know him as Madara. Speaking of his personas, you'll love it when you get to meet his Tobi persona." Kakashi looked at her in confusion, his brows drawn together. She pinched his cheek and he huffed at her childish move. "I asked you about world peace because that's the foundation of Obito's plans. Project Tsuki no Me is a work of art, but I doubt you'll give a shit about it when you hear the details. We both aren't in this for it. You'll support Obito, just like I do, and whatever happens will happen."

"What the hell are we involved in, Kana?" He grabbed her elbow before she could pull ahead and she looked down at his hand on her arm. She thought he might let her go, but he seemed determined to get some answers. She had a feeling she knew why Obito left, and it wasn't to mislead Jiraiya's spies.

"It's a long story, Kakashi."

"We have time."

"Of course we do."

Chapter Text

Rasa was just as welcoming as she remembered, and the daimyo was just as severe. Negotiations had started five hours ago, and every minute tried her patience. She had nothing left to offer. Kakashi had started out with the lowest amount of land imaginable, and they'd slowly reached their limit. The Land of Wind expected too much of them. Faced with operating outside of mission parameters or ending the negotiations, she chose to end negotiations, surprising the daimyo, but not Rasa. He studied them for moments before they left the Kazekage's office, then he wrote something down on a piece of paper and passed it to the daimyo, who skimmed it over and passed it to Kakashi. She admired Kakashi’s poker face as he read over the last offer of the day. As soon as she saw the number of people Suna was willing to trade, she returned to the seat provided to her and offered a quarter of the total land in the Land of Rice Fields. Rasa frowned as he read the number, then he nodded. The agreement was fair. In exchange for the land, Suna and the daimyo pledged to relocate two thousand people, five hundred of which were reserve shinobi.

"This remains between us," Rasa reminded them, as if she meant to run right to Konoha. Her scratched hitai-ate should have tipped him off about her allegiance. "I expect the final documents on my desk within a week. We'll begin relocating our people within three days of receiving the signed agreement."

"We'll make sure you get your paperwork, Kazekage-sama," Kakashi reassured them, his response drawing the man's attention from her. Rasa narrowed his eyes at Kakashi, clearly judging the man, so she cleared her throat to reclaim his attention.

"You'll get your shit, Rasa," she stated, her rude response earning her a harsh frown from the older man. "We'll personally deliver the offer to the daimyo, if you'll write it up and get it notarized." The daimyo nodded at the idea, so Rasa relented and began to detail the agreement on official papers.

As she waited for Rasa to finish, the contents organized on the desk began to shake. The door to the office flew open and a shinobi quickly shouted for the Kazekage. The room cleared in record time, leaving Kakashi as her only companion. He stood and walked to the large window to look out at the dark sky. Moments ago, the sky had been clear, the unforgiving sun beating down on the streets. Kana left her chair to stand beside him at the window. The glass rattled, just like the rest of the room. Briefly, she'd considered an earthquake, but the sky began to move and she saw glimpses of blue sky.

"It's sand," Kakashi softly informed her, clearly just as confused.

As the sand took shape, it began to demolish homes, joined by a giant sand monster growing in the center of Suna. Kakashi grabbed her arm and did a quick body flicker away from the window. Seconds later, sand shot through the glass, sending shards in all directions. The sand began to fill the room, so Kana threw open the door to the office and dragged Kakashi from the room, where they ran into an old woman. She took one look at Kakashi and tried stabbing him in the stomach, a blow blocked by one of Kana's kunai.

"White Fang!"

The nickname hit Kakashi, as if the old woman had truly stabbed him. Kana saw the brief moment of pain and she reacted by capturing the woman in a horrific genjutsu that she was sure the woman deserved. When the sand followed them into the hallway, Kakashi took her hand and they ran from the tower. They had to jump out a third-floor window when the sand cornered them. The sounds outside the tower were deafening. They saw the Kazekage fighting the sand monster, and it clicked for her. There was another chakra signature almost completely buried in the chaos. The monster wasn't a monster. The monster was the manifestation of the one-tailed beast. Rasa was fighting his youngest son, the boy clearly having lost control. She'd heard of similar incidents taking place, but she'd never witnessed it for herself. She watched the buildings fall, one right after another, as Rasa fought sand with gold dust.

To have sand come to life in front of her eyes was something she'd never imagined. Gaara's main focus was Rasa, but the sand didn't need the boy's full attention to be a destructive force. Kakashi jumped in to save a few civilians trapped in the rubble of their home, so she followed him. He played the hero too many times. His first reaction was a poor one. They couldn't save the two people. The sand forced them back and finished crushing the home. Blood ran from beneath the sand pile, soaking the sand granules in red that spread across the ground. The whole battle lasted ten minutes, then the village was loud with screaming and crying. Rasa dropped to the ground in front of them, his youngest son dazed but following him. There was something very wrong with Gaara's seal. Too much of the tailed beast chakra was escaping. She could only imagine what that instability felt like. She wondered if the tailed beast had the level of control to break free entirely. She really hated Sunagakure.

It took three days for Rasa to draw up the agreement and notarize it. He'd been too focused on damage control. While she couldn't blame him, she still didn't appreciate waiting on something that took mere minutes to complete. The old woman that had attacked Kakashi seemed to hover in the background, her eyes constantly tracking him, so Kana stayed with him at all times. Apparently, Sakumo had hurt her in some way and she simply mistook Kakashi for his father. Kana couldn't understand how the woman could make such a big mistake. Sakumo was a handsome man, but he would have aged, just as she'd aged. Kakashi was still young, and it didn't take seeing his whole face to tell. After she received the scroll with the agreement, she rushed Kakashi to leave, even though it was late in the afternoon and it meant sleeping or traveling in the desert at night.

"I can see why you dislike Sunagakure."

"I hate it. Saying I dislike it is being too generous." He looked back at the entrance to the hidden village, then he focused on her. She felt him staring at her, so she sighed to herself. "It reminded me too much of the nine tails. That kind of chakra was overwhelming. I almost missed the jinchuriki attached to it." When she remembered that he'd lost his sensei and Kushina that night, she frowned. She waited for him to reply, but he just hummed and looked away. "I forgot," she tried to explain. He gave her an odd look. "I forgot what that night meant for you."

"It was ten years ago. I really don't want to talk about it."

"Yeah? Too fucking bad. We have nothing to do but walk and talk."

He didn't speak to her for the remainder of the day. She didn't bother trying to bait him into a conversation, so she focused on keeping her hat on her head and not disturbing rattlesnakes. They didn't stop for the night, but she wasn't surprised. When they hit the Land of Rivers, he finally spoke to her, but it was only to tell her that they should find a place to sleep. It took two hours to find a large enough village for an inn, and they ended up at a decent bed and breakfast that was clearly aimed at couples; judging by the decorations in the place, someone clearly liked knitting. By the time Kakashi smiled his way to a discounted room, Kana was ready to shake him. She refused to apologize for her mistake, and he showed no signs of speaking to her at length. She snagged the room key from him and threw open the door to their room, but she simply stood in the doorway and glared at the only bed in the room.

"Not this shit again," she hissed, stomping a foot on the floor. Kakashi looked past her and made a noise, clearly feeling some way about the arrangements. "Go get a room with two beds. I'm not doing this again. I hate this. I'm not sleeping with you. Don't you dare fucking laugh at me!" He turned away to hide his expression from her, but she'd already heard him chuckling. He thought it was so amusing, but it infuriated her. She'd had enough of the one-bed theme. "Go get another room!" She grabbed the doorknob, stepped back, and slammed the door closed, shutting them in the hallway.

"Kana, this is a bed and breakfast for couples. What did you expect?" He was being patient with her, but she didn't appreciate his tone. He spoke to her as if he were addressing a child.

"No." There was finality to her tone, but the way he looked at her let her know that he disagreed with her refusal. He was a complete gentleman, when he wanted to be, but that wasn't the point. She didn't want to end up in some awkward situation that led to sex that she would regret and have to admit to Obito. Kakashi didn't deserve to die.

"Do you want to leave?"

"Yes."

"Do you want to sleep on the cold, hard ground?"

"No." She didn't want to share a bed with him. She stomped her foot again to emphasize her continued refusal, so he rested his hands on her hips, picked her up, and moved her aside. She huffed at him as he opened the door and motioned her inside. After a low growl, she swept past him and went right for the bed. "I'm not sleeping with you," she repeated, still stubborn. He removed his cloak and draped it over the chair in the corner, while she pretended to guard the bed from him.

"I'll sleep on the floor. Would that make you happy?" She thought it would, but it didn't, because she didn't want him to wake up with back pain from a lumpy futon. "If you were paying attention, instead of glaring at the decorations, you would know that there are no futons here. It's the bed or the floor," he informed her, removing his hitai-ate. She saw the scar over his left eye and looked away. He was talking to her again, something she just noticed.

"Just stay on your side of the bed. I mean it. I'm not kidding."

"Just go take a shower. Calm down."

"Fine."

Kana found rose petals in the bathtub, along with a candle that smelled like roses. For a moment, she considered collecting all of the rose petals and throwing them out their window, but she eventually decided to go with it and use the roses to relax. The candle smelled wonderful, and it burned well. The whole bathroom reminded her of a little garden. Instead of a shower, she chose to take a bath. She leaned back in the tub and closed her eyes, focusing on the way the hot water felt on her muscles. For the first time in days, she felt at peace, then Kakashi knocked on the bathroom door and she accidentally filled the room with killing intent that had her groaning and sinking lower in the tub. She waited for Kakashi to say he needed to use the bathroom, because she knew she would cry at the way the world worked, but he surprised her.

"I found a restaurant with gyoza," he said, his voice suddenly sweet to her ears. They hadn't stopped for food, so the only thing they'd eaten were rations, and the food barely qualified as food. He still remembered what she liked. That made her smile.

"I'll be out," she called, already reaching for the plug to let the water out. He didn't disturb her as she dried off and dressed in a t-shirt and sweats. Obito would have marched in without caring. She enjoyed the privacy Kakashi let her have. As she left the bathroom, she left the light on, knowing Kakashi still needed to shower. "Thanks," she greeted him, joining him at the kotatsu. He nudged her container across the tabletop and she immediately opened the box to examine her gyoza.

"I wasn't there." She tried to understand him, but he didn't make sense. She stayed quiet, taking bites of her food while he summoned the courage to go on. "The night my sensei and Kushina died, I wasn't there. I had orders from the ANBU commander, but I didn't care. I abandoned my mission in an attempt to find them. I arrived after they were already gone. I have a lot of regrets. That's one of them. I wasn't there when they needed me." He continued eating his rice, occasionally poking the food with his chopsticks. She could recall screaming. That night had been a disaster.

"You were young, Kakashi. You would have died too."

"I wasn't even allowed to see their son. I was ordered to have no contact with him. He doesn't know who I am. He doesn't know who his parents are. He doesn't know how much they loved him."

"So we'll tell him." He looked up from his container of beef and she saw his face for the first time in years. He'd paused, his chopsticks up, a bite of food ready. "Once we're done with this mission, we can talk to Obito about breaking into the village again. It's better than using a henge. If he weren't so young, I'd suggest kidnapping him." Even as she spoke, she knew that Naruto was a jinchuriki, that they would eventually have to hunt him. Still, her words made him chuckle. She would have kidnapped Naruto for him. She would do a lot of things for him.

"I wouldn't mind paying him a visit."

"Then it's settled."

"You're staring."

"It's your stupid face. It's hideous." He smiled and she saw the tilt of his lips and how it accented his beauty mark. He knew she was joking about her opinion of him. She was so distracted, she missed him plucking food from her container until she saw him eating her gyoza. "You dick! I wanted that!" She flicked rice at him and he threw a piece of beef that hit her on her forehead. "Someone wants to sleep on the floor tonight."

"Hm. No, I really don't. I'm going to take a shower. You should get some sleep. You know I like to get up early."

"Yeah, I remember. Sometimes you woke me up. I hated that."

While he was in the shower, she climbed into bed and curled up on her right side. That gave him plenty of room on the right side of the bed. She closed her eyes and listened to the sound of the shower. Twenty minutes later, the bed dipped and she gave up some of the covers for him. She thought that the comfortable bed would help her sleep, but it didn't. She tossed and turned for well over an hour, then she pushed the blankets aside and went to sit in the chair near the window. Light rain soaked the world beyond the window. The weather report hadn't called for rain. Any part of the moon and all of the night's stars were hidden behind the grey cloud cover. She saw endless mud in their future.

"Is there something interesting outside?" Kakashi peered over his shoulder at her and she shook her head. He touched her side of the bed, likely searching for warmth, then he turned onto his other side to face her. "You can usually sleep through anything, so it's not the rain keeping you up. Is it sharing a bed with me?" She frowned and shook her head. It wasn't him, at least she didn't think it was him. The image of the one tails came to mind, but she'd experienced other traumatic events and slept just fine. She heard him sigh. "It's late," he stressed.

"I can see the numbers on the clock just fine, so I know it's late. Just turn over and go back to sleep, Kakashi."

"Will you please come back to bed?"

"Fine, but don't complain when I toss and turn for hours. I tried to let you sleep."

"I'll keep my many complaints to myself."

Chapter Text

He was younger than she’d imagined, and he looked too vulnerable in his clothes that were two sizes too big. His apartment was a wreck, with dirty dishes and dirty clothes on every available surface. The walls had large cracks that spread like spider webs across the cheap plaster, and a part of the ceiling was missing in his bedroom, revealing bits of pink insulation and bare wood. He didn’t deserve to grow up in such a place. He was ten years old, and the village had already failed him. Kana wondered if anyone truly cared about him. She’d tried shielding Kakashi from the worst of it, but he’d shoved her aside. He looked murderous for the first few moments, then she watched the emotions flicker in his eyes, one a brilliant red. Kakashi chose to memorize the way Naruto choked the life out of his pillow; the boy’s lips were parted for a line of drool that dampened the pillowcase. He was a heavy sleeper, completely oblivious to the danger outside his bedroom window. The ANBU stationed on the rooftop was unconscious and positioned to look as if he were simply sitting down on the job. There was no one stopping them from taking the boy. And maybe he and Kakashi could have a few good years as a makeshift family, where the boy would know what love felt like, but it would always end the same way. Naruto needed to die for Obito’s plan to succeed. Eventually, Kakashi would learn the truth. Even without asking, Kana knew that Kakashi would fight to protect Naruto. That was the kind of man he was. He fought for ghosts and memories.

When Kakashi wanted to enter the apartment, she didn’t stop him. She returned to the roof to wait with Obito. Obito didn’t have the same feelings about Naruto. Kakashi saw a part of Minato and Kushina, while Obito saw another part of his plans. Obito lacked the attachment needed to fuel the same kind of anger she’d seen in Kakashi. Naruto was a cute kid in a terrible situation, but she lacked that same attachment. She saw another glaring mistake in the well-crafted facade surrounding Konoha. The village would lose him, one way or another. Kakashi’s obvious pain made her want to gut the Hokage and the remainder of the council, but she settled for staring at the many rooftops, tracing old pathways through the village. As the ANBU began to tip to one side, she righted him and he slumped forward, his back at a harsh angle. She considered letting him fall to his death, but Obito gave her a look that had her repositioning the body again. The agreement was to get in and get out, but seconds turned to minutes, and Obito made no move to retrieve Kakashi.

“You know you’re going to kill the kid.” She didn't look at him as she spoke. She watched a stray cat run from between two trash cans, another cat quickly following. Then the night was quiet again.

“I do. So do you. Kakashi doesn’t need to know, not yet. And before you suggest kidnapping Naruto to make Kakashi happy, the answer is no. He'll get over it."

"You're playing a losing hand here and we both know it. He's going to find out, and he's not going to handle it well. It's his bleeding heart trait that survived because of your stupid ass."

"Go get him. We've been here long enough."

Kana clicked her tongue and got to her feet, then she dropped down to Naruto's window and peered into the dark apartment. She couldn't see Kakashi in the bedroom, so she entered the apartment to find him. He was in the kitchen, bent over the counter, writing something in an empty notebook he'd found amongst the filth. She made noise as she approached him, then she watched from the side as he finished detailing a shopping list and strict instructions for healthy eating. He'd clearly noticed all of the empty ramen cups. He left money on the shopping list, as if the kid would actually follow the suggestions. She went around closing kitchen cabinets that Kakashi had been checking for food, then she returned to his side. He covered his face with his hands and she lightly patted his back. When he didn't show signs of pulling away, she sighed and drew him into a hug. He held her tightly in his arms and breathed in the scent of hibiscus as if he were starving.

"We have to go now. This won't be the only time you'll see Naruto," she tried reassuring him, lightly rubbing his back. After another minute, he pulled away from her and flashed her one of his eye smiles that had her slapping his chest. "Don't fake that shit with me." He winced at her hit, then he nodded, unwilling or unable to find the words. She heard a thump and a shout, where Naruto had likely fallen out of bed. The noise startled them both.

"Let's slip out the front." Kakashi squeezed her hip, then he led the way to the front door. They locked it before they closed it behind them. Outside, Kakashi released a breath he swore he'd held since the moment he'd entered the apartment. "I'm done here. Kamui again?" As if on cue, Obito appeared in a body flicker.

"We're leaving through the back. I have nowhere to be right now," Obito shrugged, motioning for one of them to lead the way. With a sigh, Kana went first, easily feeling for chakra signatures in their immediate vicinity. "Did you have a good time tonight?"

"No, I can't say that I did," Kakashi replied, his chipper tone too much for Kana. He was faking it again; she knew the sight would always stay with him. A sharingan never forgets. Obito grunted at the reply and joined Kana in front, leaving Kakashi to trail behind them. It was wrong of him.

"Go walk with him," Kana instructed, nudging Obito away from her. He glanced back at Kakashi, his eyes narrowed. "I'm not asking you to talk about your feelings. Just be near him for five fucking seconds." When Obito didn't move, she gritted her teeth and let Obito lead. She walked next to Kakashi for the duration of their short trip through the village. She didn't understand why they couldn't cooperate. They clearly cared about one another. Then she remembered that men were hopeless and stupid.

"I appreciate what you're trying to do, but I'll be fine, Kana."

"Just shut up, Kakashi."

They traveled to Tanzaku-gai, where they stopped for the night. It was two in the morning before they found a place with any vacancies, and it wasn’t the greatest motel, something she noted the moment she set eyes on the old building. Tired, she didn’t put up any complaints. Beside her, Kakashi admired the same building, likely sharing her thoughts on their temporary home. The exterior of the building had cracks at the foundation, and the railing running along the second floor was rusted. From where they stood, she heard one of the televisions, where the volume was too loud and the thin walls failed to contain the noise. She thought that Obito would handle the motel room, but he handed over some ryo and motioned with a hand, clearly expecting her to handle their rooms. She considered passing the responsibility off to Kakashi, but she sighed and went to the downstairs office to handle the arrangements. The most obvious choice was a room with two beds, where she would likely sleep with Obito, but she hummed when the woman at the desk talked about their rooms with two beds. She thought it would be awkward to share a bed with Obito when they had Kakashi in the same room. The thought of him seeing them that way made her uncomfortable. Biting down on her lower lip to contain a devious smile, she asked for one room with one bed. The woman at the desk was entirely oblivious to her plans and the fact that she had two others waiting outside.

“It took you long enough,” Obito muttered, accepting the key she offered. She hid all of her thoughts and emotions in a simple shrug, so he saw nothing on her face. Kakashi stared at her though, having known her longer, having known when she was going to cause trouble. They followed Obito to the second floor, where they stopped at a room on the corner of the building. As soon as the door opened, she saw him tense, then she felt his chakra churning. He was angry. “Kana.” The way he said her name made her want to squirm.

“Oh,” Kakashi managed, looking at the single bed in the room. He began to chuckle, while Obito glared at him with as much heat as the man could manage. Kana peered around them to see the single bed, then she clicked her tongue and pretended as if she hadn’t specifically requested a room with one bed. “Maybe we should see if they have any other rooms left,” Kakashi suggested.

“Cowards,” Kana stated, receiving a glare from Obito and a frown from Kakashi. She let the two exchange a brief look, then she shoved past them and entered the room, giving them the choice of running away. While Obito entered the room, Kakashi remained in the doorway, clearly torn on what he wanted to do. The bed was large enough for them to sleep together, but Kana had plans to shove them together. Obito sat down at the bottom of the bed and turned the television on, clearly trying to ignore the way Kakashi hovered at the door. “Would you get in here and shut the damn door, Hatake?”

Shoulders slumped, Kakashi stepped into the room and closed the door. He locked the door, even though there was no way the numerous locks would ever save them from a decent shinobi. He took a seat in a chair in the corner and watched Kana remove her cloak and search through her storage scrolls for something to sleep in. He’d traded his own bag for storage scrolls, but he made no move to open them. And Obito ignored them both, pretending as if the late-night repeat of an afternoon soap opera held his attention. She didn’t mind Kakashi watching her, because she had no intention of undressing in front of him. She retrieved a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and went to the room’s bathroom to shower and change, leaving the men alone. When she returned, they were exactly where she’d left them, clearly refusing to communicate. She wondered if Kakashi would try to sleep on the floor to get away from Obito. Instead of letting Kakashi shower, Obito turned the television off and went to shower, leaving Kakashi to hope that they left him some hot water. Knowing Obito, Kana expected Obito to purposely use the rest of the hot water, even if he simply let it run down the drain. After twenty minutes, Kana knocked on the bathroom door to coax Obito from the room. Just as she’d thought, he’d used most of the hot water. When he opened the door, steam rolled into the room. He brushed past her and went right for the bed, where he placed his mask on the bedside table and pushed the covers back. For the first time, Kakashi saw his face in decent lighting, and the man seemed frozen to the spot.

“I know the scars are bad. You don’t have to stare at me. Go get your shower, Kakashi.”

“Your scars don’t matter to me. I just didn’t expect to see you again. It’s different without the mask. You’re really Obito.”

“Don’t use that name around anyone else. I’m Madara or Tobi. That’s it.”

“You’re Obito to me.”

“And it’s time for your shower. Let’s go,” Kana interrupted, clapping her hands. She saw Obito’s brow twitch, and she knew that the man was close to saying something he would regret. Kakashi sighed at her words, but he went without complaint. When the bathroom door closed, she sat down next to Obito and he turned his unhappy expression on her. “You’ll always be Obito to us, so there’s no point in yelling at him. These walls are paper thin and I don’t think anyone will appreciate a screaming match at three in the morning. Let it go. He loves you. I don’t know why,” she said, joking at the end. He huffed at her and she smiled for him. “What are the odds that I can get you two to sleep next to each other?”

“Very funny. It’s not happening. If I wake up and he’s next to me, I’m burning you both alive. Now get in the bed,” Obito said, already getting beneath the covers. He slept facing the door, leaving her with no option but to sleep in the middle, exactly where she didn’t want to be. She didn’t want to sleep next to Kakashi—neither of them wanted to sleep next to Kakashi. After several minutes, Obito turned over to face her and saw the frown on her lips. “You wanted one bed. This is what you get, coward.”

“Fuck you. I’m not a coward. I just don’t want you getting weird about this sleeping arrangement.”

“I’m not going to get jealous. I have no reason for jealousy. You’re making something out of nothing.”

“I’d get jealous.”

“I’ll remember to include you in our passionate love making, now get in the bed.”

Even though she didn’t need to, she flipped him off. He’d clearly had enough of her, because he leaned over, grabbed her around the waist, and dragged her into bed. She fell onto the mattress with an embarrassing squeal that had her cheeks turning red. He laughed at her as she refused to cooperate and get underneath the covers. Kakashi walked in on them, took one look at them, and shook his head. He still wore his sleeveless shirt, his mask still over the lower part of his face. She caught Obito looking him over and pinched his nose closed. He swatted her hand away and she slipped beneath the covers, where he dragged her into his chest. He’d said he wasn’t jealous, but his actions told her he was, contradicting his words. Kakashi took the remaining spot in the bed and turned his back to them, as if nothing about the situation bothered him. Obito’s right hand settled on her stomach, then he slid it beneath the bottom of her shirt to have skin on skin. He was impossible.

Sometime in the night, Kakashi had turned to face them. Kana woke up with her leg draped over one of his and Obito’s breath on the side of her neck. She sat up enough to see the clock, but they’d only been asleep for two hours. She didn’t want another sleepless night, but she had trouble falling back asleep. Obito’s hand rubbed a circle on her stomach, then slid up toward her breasts and she squeezed his hand, letting him know that she was awake and not in the mood for his shit. Kakashi could be a light sleeper in foreign places, so she didn’t want him waking up to Obito groping her. Obito kissed her shoulder and she scowled. He was doing it on purpose, to make some point to her, maybe that he didn’t care if Kakashi saw them or heard them, maybe that he was more possessive than he’d made himself seem. He moved his hips and she closed her eyes and tried to ignore the fact that he was hard. He knew exactly what he was doing. She couldn’t yell at him because she would wake up Kakashi, drawing attention to what was happening. And Obito would likely play stupid, leaving her looking like the guilty party.

“Don’t,” she managed, still trying to channel calmness to keep her voice even. Obito kissed her shoulder again and fondled her breasts, so she squeezed his right hand until he drove his hips forward. He had her questioning if they could have sex without waking Kakashi. The thought itself was thrilling, and the excitement coursed through her veins. She wasn’t stupid enough to think it would work though. “He’s a light sleeper,” she warned, already watching Kakashi’s face for signs of the man waking up.

“Maybe you should have thought of that before getting one room with one bed.”

“We both fucking know that you would have pulled this same stunt if I’d gotten the room with two beds.”

“Probably. Do you think you can be quiet enough for me to fuck you while he’s sleeping next to us?”

“I’ll end you.”

Her threat did nothing to deter him. She wondered if she should have used more colorful vocabulary, and made some attempt to draw a more violent picture. She was left with him slowly rocking against her, clearly trying to tempt her into giving in when she felt more like strangling him. With her luck, he would enjoy the breath play. He pinched one of her nipples and she sighed. She wasn't giving him the reaction he wanted, so his hand went from teasing her right nipple to dipping into her panties. She tried elbowing him, but it didn't deter him. Kakashi made a face and Kana held her breath, praying he wouldn't catch them in a terrible position. The gods had never liked her. Kakashi squinted at her in the dark and she did her best to ignore Obito’s index finger circling her clit.

"Can't sleep again?" Kakashi actually cared if she slept or not, as evidenced by the concern in his voice. She gasped and covered it with a harsh cough that had him frowning at her. He was trying to piece together the puzzle, but the angle and the blankets disguised the fact that Obito’s hand was between her legs. "Do you need something to drink?"

"Yes, do you need something to drink, Kana?" Obito echoed the words and leaned up on his other arm so he could look down at her. His finger traced along her slit and she glared at him with such an intensity that he chuckled.

"Go to sleep!" She hissed the words at both of them, even though Kakashi didn't deserve the attitude. Kakashi's eyes narrowed and she saw the exact moment when he noticed the subtle movement of Obito’s right wrist. His face went blank and he turned to get up. "Look what you fucking did! Great job, Obito!" She didn't care if the people on the opposite side of the wall heard them. She placed her hand over Obito’s face and shoved him away from her. "Kakashi, wait," she tried, grabbing his left arm to keep him from completely leaving the bed.

"No one is telling you to leave."

The look Kakashi gave Obito could have frozen over hell. She didn't know what Obito had hoped to accomplish with the words, but she doubted he'd planned for Kakashi to touch her through her shirt. Obito narrowed his eyes and kissed her shoulder. It was an unspoken competition. Kana didn't know what fucked up contest she'd won, but she didn't appreciate feeling used for some pissing contest. They were being juvenile. Kakashi returned to his spot and snaked his hand up her shirt to play with her breasts, while Obito nudged his knee between her legs so his index and middle fingers could circle her entrance. She growled in her throat, but Kakashi surprised her by kissing her. She tasted mint on his tongue, every moment of the kiss feeling refreshing. It was like no time had passed at all. He wasn't kissing her for the right reasons though, and it made the whole situation sour. He meant to aggravate Obito, and where Obito had started with possessiveness and sexual excitement, Obito had quickly changed and joined the game. She thought about losing her temper, but she settled for yanking Kakashi's mask down again and stealing another kiss.

"You're still just as possessive as you were as a kid, Obito."

"Yeah? I don't see you backing down, Kakashi."

"Shut up! Your stupid sexual tension is over. Obito, take off your pants. Kakashi, kiss me like you fucking mean it."

Kana gripped the front of Kakashi's shirt and dragged him in for a bruising kiss that had too much teeth to be even remotely pleasing for him. But she still enjoyed every second of it, because it was Kakashi again. When he pulled away, he removed his shirt and moved in to nip and suck on a spot on her neck he knew she enjoyed. The mattress shifted at her back, then she felt Obito’s bare body against her. Whether he meant for her to enjoy it or not, he bit the fleshy part on her shoulder as he entered her. She moaned, high pitched and fading into nothingness. Kakashi captured her lips again and all of the sounds she made were caught by him. She didn't expect Obito to be so rough with her, but his thrusts were hard and his hold on her hip was bruising again, as if they were having sex after one of their worst arguments. It was like hate sex, and she knew what that was like very well.

"Harder," she breathed, the command for Obito alone. Kakashi was the one nice enough to rub her clit, so she had something more than pain that brought delicious sounds from her parted lips. "Faster, Kakashi!" Someone pounded on the wall and she moaned a chorus yes and Obito before she climaxed and it faded into heavy breathing. Obito came with a groan, his motions jerky, hips snapping forward once more as he finished inside of her.

"That was eventful," Kakashi chuckled, the one left out of the fun. Kana looked back at Obito, but he was already withdrawing. He fell onto his back and closed his eyes, his chest quickly rising and falling. She felt the same way, but she drew Kakashi into a sweet kiss that he answered. When they parted, she nudged Obito’s side and he groaned at her.

"Fucking kiss him," she demanded, the words shocking them both. Obito scowled at her, his eyes darting from her face to Kakashi's face. "Too much of a coward to take what you want?" She purposely baited him and he fell for it, just like she suspected he would.

"It's a kiss," Obito frowned, trying to get Kakashi to meet him halfway. Kakashi exchanged a look with Kana and she smirked at him, all the encouragement he needed to press his lips to Obito’s. Kakashi's hands went to Obito’s cheeks and Obito sighed into the kiss, clearly not as worn out as he made himself seem. Obito pulled away first and he licked his lower lip. "You bit me too hard."

"Ah, I'm used to Kana. She likes it rough," Kakashi explained, seemingly embarrassed. Obito chuckled, all of them knowing it was true. Kana thought she might get away with falling asleep, but she caught sight of the tent in Kakashi's sweats and sighed.

"Maybe you could," she tried, addressing Obito. Obito took one look at Kakashi's lap and frowned. He silently refused, even going so far as to avoid looking at Kakashi at all. "Fine. Loser. Let's go, Kakashi." She rested her hand at the nape of his neck and drew him into a heated kiss.

He kissed her neck and she ran a hand down his back. His skin was flushed and warm against her own. She thought Obito might bow out entirely, but he stole another kiss from Kakashi, and Kana found that she enjoyed watching them. She could pretend that there wouldn't be a fallout between them, that Kakashi wouldn't grow to hate them. They traded kisses as Kakashi eased into her. He groaned at the feel of her walls around him. She was still sensitive from Obito, still at a plateau that promised another peak. She thought he would be gentle with her, but he leaned down to kiss her neck and his breath hit her ear. He quietly told her that she'd been bad and her cheeks flushed as he snapped his hips forward and drew a gasp of his name from her lips. Someone pounded on the wall again and Obito left the bed. She reached for him, but Kakashi held her hand down, their fingers laced. She thought she heard the door open and close, but she was too busy to think straight.

"Yes. Fuck me!"

She didn't care that she cried the words as she succumbed to the appeal of rough sex that took her back to simpler times. When his hand closed around her throat, she felt the thrill rise, like a chill up her spine. The noise in the room, the sound of flesh on flesh, the abrupt disappearance of the steady pounding on the wall, everything faded. She wrapped her legs around him and lost herself in the breath play. Eventually, her legs fell as he deepened his thrusts, withdrawing completely only to thrust right back into her. He choked her until her heart raced and she felt tingling in her lower extremities that grew and grew.

"Kakashi!"

It was embarrassing how utterly broken her voice sounded as she came. He took longer to cum, so much so that she drew closer to another climax, one he coaxed out of her by aggressively rubbing her clit. He came with a moan of her name and he remained over her, panting, clearly just as gone. The door opened and she didn't bother shielding herself. Obito had flecks of blood on his face, which he wiped off on the sleeve of his cloak. She couldn't help the breathy laugh that came from her lips. He looked thoroughly pissed off, and it wasn't at them.

The bed was a complete wreck, and Kana couldn't find it in herself to care. Between her legs was wet, the sheets stained with cum, and she laughed, because she didn't care at all. Obito suggested they move to the next room, so they simply wrapped themselves in the cleaner sheets and snuck into the next room, where Kana saw the blood seeping from beneath the bathroom door, staining the cream carpet red. Obito had killed their annoying neighbor. She thought they might force her into the middle again, so she wasn't surprised when they left her enough space between them. She curled up against Obito’s chest and Kakashi held her from the back. In the morning, she would likely ask herself what the hell they'd done, but that was a problem for the morning. Right then, she was content.

Chapter Text

Kana brushed her fingers over the scars on Obito’s face, tracing marks from an injury that should have killed him. She knew they would have fewer moments together as the months came and went. But it was his birthday, and she wanted to make his day better. Kakashi had left an hour ago, promising that he would grab them breakfast. She wondered if he'd gotten lost, or if he'd meant to give them time alone. She missed him holding her, not that she would ever admit it. The odd evening quickly became an odd morning, where she wanted to stay there with them until they all rotted away. The thought was a stray one, but it still upset her. She didn't like how she felt with them, because when she saw them, she saw weaknesses. There would never be a happy ending for them, whether Tsuki no Me worked out or not, but she suspected both men already knew that. So she settled for kissing Obito. Because it was so much easier to bury the thoughts and forget them. It was Obito’s twenty-third birthday. That mattered more.

He wrapped his arms around her and they shared a series of light kisses that brought a smile to her face. When he finally opened his eyes, he mumbled about the sunlight bleeding through the curtains, so she nudged him onto his back and continued kissing him. She felt Kakashi’s chakra signature across town, so she ran her hands over Obito’s chest, fingers trailing over his stomach and down to where the blankets concealed him. He turned his head to check for Kakashi and she answered the questioning look with another kiss.

"He's getting us breakfast. He didn't run off. He's clearly the responsible one in this fucking mess, and it's pretty scary."

"He's on the other side of town, so we have time, if you want to."

"Somebody has been practicing his sensory skills. How does his chakra feel?"

"Not as good as you under me." He smirked at her and she rolled her eyes, despite the fact that he'd impressed her with his cheeky response. She kissed him again and his hands went to her hips, fitting perfectly over the bruises from last night.

"That's terrible, Obito. I love it. Come take a shower with me," she mumbled into a kiss, already shoving the sheets aside. He grabbed her ass and pulled her back in for another kiss. She pulled back to look into his dark eyes. They seemed endless. He tried to kiss her again, but she smirked and pulled away from him. "Happy birthday. Now fuck me in the shower." She lightly patted his left cheek and he slapped her ass.

She waited for him to swing his legs over the side of the bed, then she went to heat the water up. She'd expected a corpse, but Kakashi had clearly removed it. Obito cornered her in the bathroom and they closed themselves into the shower. The privacy and intimacy was nice, and he wasn't rough with her. He celebrated twenty-three years by fucking her against the shower wall, and she enjoyed every second of it. She left the shower first and wrapped a towel around herself, leaving Obito to enjoy the remaining hot water. Kakashi had been smart to shower first. She didn't expect to see him eating his breakfast, acting as if he hadn't heard a thing. After she dressed, she joined him on the bed and they picked at their eggs, both of them clearly distracted.

"It's his birthday. Did you want to do something for him?"

"I already bought breakfast."

"He doesn't need to eat. Join him in the shower."

"I'm not in the mood to die, Kana."

"Someone's a coward today," she teased him, stuffing a bite of eggs into her mouth. He glanced toward the bathroom, then he looked down at the remainder of his food. "You two are horrible at this. Just go knock on the door and ask to go in. Your eggs aren't special enough to be a birthday present, but your ass is." He sighed at her and she kissed his cheek. They had little time left before they checked out of the motel and left Tanzaku-gai. She thought her words would inspire him, but he continued eating. "Kakashi, people like us don't have long lives."

"Realism," he said, describing her approach. She huffed and snatched the container of food from his hands. "It's complicated. I don't even know where to begin. I don't know how he can stand to look at me, after what I did to Rin." She jabbed him with the back of her chopsticks and he jerked away from her. "I killed her, Kana, exactly how I tried to kill you."

"You tried to kill me because we were enemies, and you failed. Did you purposely kill her?" He frowned and looked away from her, completely ignoring her question. She stabbed her chopsticks into her container and set both cartons on the bedside table. "Kakashi," she tried, still not getting his attention. She took his chin in her hand and forced him to look at her. "Did you mean to kill her?"

"No. I didn't."

"Accidents happen."

"I murdered her."

"You're supposed to be incredibly intelligent, but you sound incredibly stupid right now. Don't bring up the topic of Rin. Don't even allude to it. Just be yourself. I like you. That says a lot."

"It says you're crazy," he sighed, moving her hand from his chin. She didn't disagree, and she'd been called worse. He glanced at the bathroom door, but they both heard the shower turn off. He'd lost his chance. It was better that way. "Hm. Looks like he's done showering. Maybe next time." She shoved his carton of food at him and he went back to eating, as if the previous conversation had never taken place.

"Do you think you'd top?" Kakashi choked on his eggs and she patted his back, as if that would help him through his coughing fit. Obito stepped out of the bathroom, a towel knotted at his waist. He took one look at Kakashi and frowned at her, correctly assuming it was her fault. "I think you'd top him, Obito, don't you?"

"Yes," Obito said, shrugging. He went to his belongings to retrieve his clothing, then he simply dropped his towel and dressed in the room. Kakashi blushed but didn't turn away. "For reading that porn, you're still really shy. It's not what I expected. Was Kana your first?" Kakashi sighed, knowing Obito would pry until he got what he wanted. Kana stopped eating to stare at him. She'd always assumed he'd been with other women.

"Not exactly." Kana smiled, because she knew when Kakashi was lying. From the way Obito paused in zipping his pants, he knew the same thing.

"You get a tone when you lie. You're lying." Kakashi arched a brow at Obito’s words, clearly expecting him to explain. Obito finished zipping his pants and searched for a clean black shirt. "You try too hard to avoid having a tone, unknowingly giving yourself a bland tone that accompanies every lie. You're lying. Kana was your first. There's nothing wrong with it. I'd never slept with anyone before. It just wasn't important to me." He pulled on his shirt and turned to face them.

"What makes you think I'll let you take control?" Kana looked between the two, wondering if they knew that their casual conversation was something much deeper, and colored with flirtation. Judging from their expressions, Kakashi was oblivious, while Obito played it off as more informative than flirtatious.

"You're blushing just talking about it," Obito chuckled. Kakashi pulled his mask up to hide his scowl, which only made Obito laugh harder. "I think you'd enjoy me fucking you." Kana saw Kakashi swallow and she met Obito’s eyes, where they both silently admitted that they'd seen the same thing. She wondered if they could tease Kakashi enough to arouse him. His face was truly red. "Is that what you want, Kakashi?"

"It's getting late," Kakashi said, clearly trying too hard to change the subject. Kana rested a hand on Kakashi's left thigh and he tensed. She didn't know what Obito gained from embarrassing Kakashi, but she found it amusing. He checked the clock, as if ten in the morning counted as late when they had nowhere to go.

"I'm interested in this. Do you want Obito to fuck you?" Kakashi tried to replace himself with a pillow but she'd grabbed his arm. He narrowed his eye at her and she purposely rubbed higher on his inner thigh. "Tell me what you want, just for curiosity, Kakashi."

"I hate both of you," Kakashi declared, giving them a dead stare. She huffed at his unwillingness, but Obito wasn't intimidated and wasn't deterred. "Maybe another time, hm? We should be going."

"I could bend you over that chair," Obito suggested, the focus shifting to the comfortable chair in the room. Kakashi took one look at the chair, clearly feigning disinterest. The color in Kakashi's cheeks didn't go away. "But you'd look good on your knees too. Decisions, decisions."

"You do owe him a birthday present, Kakashi. Choking on his dick would be a nice gift."

"Thank you, Kana."

"You're easily flustered. It's cute," Obito shrugged, seemingly letting the topic go. He sat down on the edge of the bed, and his eyes never left Kakashi. "Well?" He motioned to himself, indicating he was willing to let Kakashi suck him off. Kana pressed her lips together to keep from smiling or laughing. Kakashi was entirely uncomfortable with the subject, and they were both cruel for teasing the man. "Ah, thought so. Let me know when you're ready to play the game." Obito put his mask back on, concealing his own smirk. "Hurry up. I want to leave."

"If you say we're going back to Amegakure, I'm moving to Kumo," Kana frowned, just imagining the cold rain waiting for them. He looked at Kakashi, as if to complain about her, so Kakashi whistled and turned his head away.

"Thanks for your help, Kakashi," Obito complained, trying his best to avoid an argument she meant to instigate. Obito pressed a hand to his mask, as if he meant to cover his face. "I'll give you a mission you hate if you keep complaining about Amegakure." She pressed her lips together and waited. He saw that she wasn't going to complain, so his hand dropped. "You can choose your own mission. Just this once." They all knew he would cave at some other point in the future, but they didn't acknowledge the fact.

"And if I choose to throw you a lavish birthday party instead?"

"Your new partner will be Zetsu."

"Fine. Three missions, my choice, and Zetsu stays far away from me. I mean it. I know when he's following me."

"One mission, and I'll suggest he stop."

"Two. There are two of us," Kakashi said, entering the negotiations. Obito threw him a nasty glare, so Kakashi smiled, the curve of his lips clear, even with the mask on his face. "What if I want to pick a mission? One seems unfair, don't you think? That's bad for morale." Obito turned away from Kana to focus entirely on Kakashi, since the man was being difficult. Kana finished her food while the two stared at one another. "I hear Kumo is nice in the winter," Kakashi began, cut off when Obito threw a kunai at his head. "Someone could get hurt," Kakashi frowned, looking at the kunai sticking out of the far wall.

"I regret letting you join."

"Well, it's too late now, isn't it?"

"I'm close to leaving you in this dump."

"You care too much to abandon us." Obito disappeared, leaving them alone in the motel room. Kana punched Kakashi's arm and he hissed in pain. "I didn't know he would actually leave us here," Kakashi frowned, rubbing the sore spot on his arm. Kana punched him again, just to make sure he understood the message. "Fine, fine. I'm sorry. Would you like to wait for him to come back?"

"He's not coming back. You pissed him off," she huffed, scanning the room for the rest of her items. They'd moved everything into the room, but she wasn't prepared for a hasty exit. As she organized her belongings, Kakashi watched her. "Stop staring at me. It's creepy," Kana complained, not looking up from her storage scroll. He hummed in response, so she glanced at him.

"It's his mangekyou, isn't it?"

"I'm not telling you shit you don't need to know."

"If it's his mangekyou, I could have the same ability."

"Kakashi, I don't think it's a good idea for you to," she didn't get to finish because the motel room with its cracks and peeling wallpaper was replaced with cold concrete in every direction. She whipped her head in his direction to yell at him for experimenting with their lives, but he was on the ground, his face pale and covered in sweat. "I told you it wasn't a good idea!" She yelled at him as she flickered to his side. "Do you have any idea how reckless that was? Your chakra is dangerously low! Now we're fucking stuck here!"

"It worked," he managed to say, turning his head to look at her. She narrowed her eyes and he chuckled, finding some humor in their terrible situation. "I just need more training."

"You're an idiot," she sighed, choosing to lie down beside him. There was nothing to see in kamui, except levels of concrete and empty space. She kept checking Kakashi’s chakra as they waited for Obito to locate them. "You knew it would take a lot of chakra. That eye is a problem for you. Are you suicidal? Is that it?"

"No more than usual, I'm afraid."

"I prefer Obito’s anger over your sick sense of humor."

"You've moved on."

Kana sat up, but she didn't look at him. She didn't know what to say without yelling at him or insulting his intelligence. When she thought about him, she imagined the last dinner she'd had with her parents, and that made her feel sick to her stomach. The old blood stain on the concrete let her focus her attention on something other than the hurt. He wasn't right. He wasn't wrong. Maybe they'd both tried to move on, did halfway decent jobs, and ended up back at the beginning, where they couldn't voice how they felt about one another. She picked at her nails, peeling off chipped purple polish she should have removed days ago. He sighed and she risked a glance at him that had their eyes meeting. Her nail polish had never been so interesting. He broke eye contact first, so she sighed.

"Look, I don't, you know," she tried, failing at constructing decent sentences. Frustrated, she crossed her arms over her chest and glared into the darkness. "I still have feelings for you. That hasn't changed. What do you want me to say?"

"Is it about love or possession?"

"Is there a difference?"

"Yes, Kana, there's a difference."

"I want you." She didn't need to pause before she said the words. He turned his head so he could see her, and she hoped he saw the sincerity. Maybe it wasn't love anymore. Maybe it was all about her possessiveness. He picked her apart just by looking at her. "I want you," she repeated, more strength behind the words. He smiled, though he still looked exhausted and sweat ran into his eye.

"I'm not going anywhere." He lightly patted her thigh when he said the words, so she placed her hand over his. The conversation died, but she still kept her hand over his. "How long do you think it'll take him to realize we're missing?"

"After we've resorted to cannibalism."

"I take it I'm the victim?"

"Be quiet, victim."

Chapter Text

Three months into the new year brought the reintroduction of spring weather patterns, but the warmth they encountered in the Land of Hot Water reminded her too much of summer. Kana had tried pushing up the sleeves on her cloak, but she finally removed the cloak altogether and stored it away for cooler weather. Beside her, Kakashi seemed unaffected by the heat. She used the back of her hand to wipe the sweat gathering on her forehead, then she pulled her hair off of her neck and fanned the area, trying to stop feeling as if she were drowning in sweat. The concern he'd shown only increased when she glared at him for doing absolutely nothing. She'd been moody since they'd left Amegakure, which was new, because she genuinely loved leaving the place. For the third time in the last fifteen minutes, Kakashi tried helping her with her hair and she elbowed him. He grunted at her hit and dropped her hair.

"You've been cranky for weeks," he commented, earning another withering look. He sighed and removed the hair tie she had around her wrist and pulled her hair back into a high ponytail. The cooler air felt amazing on the nape of her neck. "You picked an interesting mission. I've never encountered cannibals. I don't believe the rumors of cannibalism in Sunagakure. Although I do wonder how they survive when they're constantly importing food." His voice irritated her, reminding her too much of Tobi’s endless, one-sided conversations. They hadn't heard from Obito in four weeks. She wasn't surprised.

"Just shut up."

"Alright. What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just don't want to listen to your voice right now. Listen to the birdsong and be quiet."

She'd had more than enough of their journey and they hadn't traveled for long. Kakashi clearly didn't take her cruel words to heart. He hummed at her explanation and they both listened to the birds singing from within the trees. The fluttering of wings in combination with the birdsong made her feel like she was surrounded by nature. But she was tired, and she didn't want to ask to stop, because it was ridiculous when they'd only started traveling three hours ago. Sweat ran into her left eye and she growled in frustration. Kakashi used the right sleeve of his cloak to wipe the sweat from her brow and she sighed at him.

"You don't normally sweat this much. You had night sweats for the past week too. Maybe we should see a doctor. It might be a fever that's coming and going."

"I'm fucking fine, Kakashi. It's just really hot."

"We're seeing a doctor."

She bit her tongue to keep from lashing out at him and saying things she would regret. In the end, seeing a doctor would give her the break she wanted all along, and she wouldn't have to admit her own exhaustion. She didn't think he would insist on speeding up, so when the place increased, she barely withheld a groan of frustration. Maybe she'd been especially cranky, but the annoyances set her off. Kakashi ignored her constant muttered complaints until they finally reached the limits of Yugakure, a thriving tourist trap built on the remains of a once respectable hidden village. She could understand switching to tourism for the money, but she couldn't understand remaining as glorified guards when the people were once well-trained shinobi. If Kakashi shared her sentiments, he didn't show it. She would allow him to drag her to the hospital, where a doctor would admit that nothing was wrong and send them on their way. And she would proceed to scold Kakashi for wasting their time, as if their mission had a time limit. When she looked at him, he caught her eye and smiled, and she felt guilty for ever snapping at him.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, unable to look at him when she apologized to him. He took one of her hands and squeezed, so she felt less vulnerable. It was his way of accepting her apology, so she squeezed his hand back. She wondered if he would drop her hand, but he didn’t. She didn’t bother letting go. No one gave them a second glance. There was nothing to hide, not when they were free. If she felt like it, she could hold his hand, and she proved it as they walked. “Can we stop?” The heat was getting to her again, and the cloudless sky overhead wasn’t helping.

She caught the scent of fried food in the air and she dropped his hand to cover her nose. The scent was overpowering and made her stomach churn. The people of Yugakure enjoyed too much tempura. She remembered the time Obito had cracked her head open and she cut down a different street to avoid the remainder of restaurants. Kakashi took a few seconds to realize that she’d disappeared, but he rejoined her before she made it down the entire street. He stepped in front of her and placed his hands on her shoulders, forcing her to look at him. Her hand still over her nose, she tried to move around him, but he put pressure on her shoulders.

“It stinks. I can’t take that smell. The entire street smelled like one big deep fryer.” At her explanation, he breathed a sigh of relief and relinquished his hold on her. He stepped aside and they continued walking. When the air stopped smelling of grease, she lowered her hand and breathed in fresh air. “You don’t like tempura. You hated the smell too.”

“I’m used to it. A lot of people like tempura,” he shrugged, a small, amused smile forming. She rolled her eyes at his response, thinking that people needed something healthier than tempura, even if she usually didn’t mind eating it. “Yesterday it was fish,” he commented, reminding her of her negative reaction to his favorite dish. She recalled the smell of the cooked fish and frowned. She’d ruined their brief moment of normalcy by demanding he throw the food away. “Maybe this is the universe’s way of telling you to survive off matcha.” It was a joke that brought the ghost of a smile to her face, one she quickly dismissed with a huff. “There’s the hospital. It’s likely a stomach bug. It’s going around right now, and we did spend some time in the festival crowds in the last village.” She did recall people complaining of digestive issues, and it made perfect sense, but she’d always prided herself on her strong immune system. He placed a hand on her lower back and escorted her.

“We could spend the day here,” she thought aloud, eyeing a bathhouse as they climbed the two steps to the hospital entrance. She heard him chuckle and he held open the glass door for her to enter into the air conditioned building. The cool air had her sighing in relief, and his hand returned to her lower back, a small comfort in the foreign place. “If it’s nothing, you get to fund this trip,” she pointed out, catching his small wince that led to a sigh. They would likely spend some money if she had her way. She could imagine Kakuzu going over their expenses, how the man’s veins would bulge at the price tag. She would make Kakashi deal with that too.

“If it’s nothing, we can stop for the night. If you’re really sick, what do I get? Maybe you could be nice to me for twenty-four hours.”

“Oh fuck off. I’m nice to you!”

“Of course you are. Look, we’re next. No talking.”

She glared at him, but he ignored her reaction and smiled at the receptionist. The hospital was quiet, the waiting room entirely empty, so their wait was short. The receptionist had them fill out basic paperwork that she rushed through, her handwriting barely legible, then a nurse met them at the desk to lead them to an exam room. Kakashi tried to wait outside of the room, but she grabbed his hands and pulled him into the exam room with her, not wanting to be alone with the perky nurse. Kana suffered her way through the nurse weighing her and checking her blood pressure, then she sat on the exam table and waited for a doctor that would inevitably tell her it was a stomach bug combined with signs of heat stroke. Kakashi stood next to her, his eye darting around the room. They both hated hospitals, but Kakashi’s hatred had started when he was young. His father had been rushed to the hospital, where the man was pronounced dead. Kakashi associated hospitals with death, while she associated hospitals with suffering. She recalled a man losing his legs during a mission, how his screams had filled the hospital room and spilled into the hallway where she waited.

“Thank you for staying with me,” she said, lightly swatting his side to gain his attention. His eye focused on her face and he simply took one of her hands. It was easier for him to squeeze her hand than it was to address feelings, so she accepted his attempt at comforting her again. “If I’m sick, we can do something you want to do, whether it’s selecting the next mission or training your sharingan, whatever you want.” He hummed and considered his options. She wasn’t surprised when he didn’t announce his final choice. Knowing him, he would weigh them until the last minute.

His presence made dealing with hospital staff a little easier. She remained seated and still while her blood was drawn, then she answered simple questions and detailed her symptoms. Kakashi helped her by supplying symptoms she’d purposely overlooked and simply forgotten. Then they waited. She lightly drummed her fingers on her thighs and Kakashi leaned against the exam table, trying his best to look calm when she knew his anxiety was high. He placed his hand over one of hers to stop the endless tapping of her fingers against the shorts of her romper, then he offered her an apologetic smile that she didn’t return. Instead, she stopped with her other hand and watched the small clock above the door. Twenty minutes passed before the doctor returned, and she gleaned nothing from the woman’s tired appearance. She waited for news of her illness, where she would sulk about her poor immune system but celebrate a night off. The doctor looked through the papers stuffed into a folder, then the short brunette looked up at them and shrugged her shoulders.

“Congratulations. You’re pregnant.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re expecting. It’s still very early. Maybe four or five weeks?”

“Run the test again.”

Kakashi looked as if he’d had every ounce of blood drained from his body, and she knew it had nothing to do with her killing intent flooding the room and bleeding through the walls. The doctor was brave to stand there and face her when she clearly wanted to murder the woman. She expected the woman to give in and run the test again, but the woman simply turned and hurried away, leaving them alone. Kana didn’t want to be alone with Kakashi. She didn’t have the mental strength to deal with her own mess, and he was absolutely no help. He covered his face with his hands and she slid off the exam table, grabbed his elbow, and dragged him toward the door. Her killing intent cleared a path for them, and she knew it would linger in the lobby long after they’d gone. She didn’t know where they could go, but she didn’t want Kakashi to have a meltdown in the middle of the street. She couldn’t take him to a restaurant because she wanted him away from the public. She wanted to break things and hurt people until she felt better again. When she’d tired of dragging him, she started shoving him to keep him moving. He wasn’t coping, and she wasn’t coping, and they both couldn’t afford to lose their minds at the same time.

“How could this have happened?”

“You fucking know exactly how this happened!”

“You’re on the shot.”

“Yeah? And it fucking failed! Keep up!”

She gave up shoving him, turned on her heel, and marched off in the opposite direction. He caught up with her before she could get very far, but when he touched her elbow, she turned and slapped him on the chest. She slapped him another time because it made her feel a little better about their situation. He caught her hand before she could swing for a third time. She glared daggers at him, and he still looked as if he were back in the exam room, hearing the news for the first time. She yanked her hand away from him, so he rested his hands on her hips to keep her in place. He was clearly still trying to process the news, so she waited for him to say something incredibly stupid again. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, then he placed a hand over his face. She shoved him away from her and left him again. That time, he gave her space, though she still felt his chakra signature at her back.

The only guaranteed method was abstinence, and she’d tossed that out the window a long time ago. She didn’t need time to try and piece together exactly when her birth control had failed, because she hadn’t been intimate since their time in Tanzaku-gai. Either man could have gotten her pregnant, which meant she couldn’t place the blame solely on Kakashi. That pissed her off even more, because she had Kakashi present, and it was too easy to take her anger out on him. She didn’t care that he was still in a state of shock. She stomped around the village until her anger receded, then she came to a stop at a wooden bench and sat down, where she waited for Kakashi to gather the courage to approach her. Hands tucked under her thighs, she stared into space, her attention focused on his chakra signature. Electricity danced in the distance, but it slowly moved toward her, closing the distance between them. He sat down beside her, wisely choosing not to touch her, and watched the passersby. The afternoon sun slowly slipped beneath the horizon, and evening lights began to flicker to life. They colored Kakashi in shadows.

“Now isn’t a good time for this.”

“Don’t say stupid shit to me. I don’t feel like yelling at you right now. Please just give me a few more minutes, then we can find somewhere to stay.”

“You know Obito deserves to know about this.”

“More stupid shit. Don’t you think I know that? Where the fuck is he, huh? Does it look like Obito is going to jump out of the bushes and say hello? No. He’s not here. He’s fantastic at fucking off!”

Kakashi draped an arm along the back of the bench, then he slowly curled it around her. She didn’t fight him when he pulled her into his side, though she scowled into the distance. When it was clear she wasn’t relaxing, he rubbed her back, tracing his fingers up her spine, exactly what she enjoyed, before he rested his hand on her lower back. She still wanted to murder him. She thought about gutting him and dumping his body in the stream they passed. Her thoughts eventually calmed to match her physical state, then she just leaned against him and closed her eyes. She didn’t know what she was going to do, and he clearly had no clue what they should do, so they were both failing right out of the gate. The most obvious choice was to terminate the pregnancy, but something about doing it without Obito knowing made her squirm. He did deserve to know, and they had time to turn around and find him. He wouldn’t react well. She imagined he would resort to the same level of violence she’d felt after finding out the news, except he would likely break things or hurt people. Kakashi was correct. It wasn’t a good time for them to build a family. She didn’t want a family, for one. She didn’t even like kids, and they hated her. She didn’t understand the odd feeling in the pit of her stomach, so she wrote it off as another bout of nausea.

“Let’s go. You need to eat something, and I need something to drink.” He lightly patted her left thigh, then he stood. She looked up at him, so he held out a hand for her. With a sigh, she let him help her to her feet, then they walked in the direction of the village’s many ryokan. She really wished she’d had the stomach flu, or some other terrible illness. Her mother had always wanted her to settle down and have a family. Maybe it was her curse for murdering the unbearable woman. “I’ll handle reaching out to Obito,” he assured her, still holding one of her hands. She grunted at the thought of him tracking them down. If they took their sweet time, Obito would be able to sense the beginnings of another chakra signature, then they wouldn’t have to break the news at all. He could devastate himself.

“He’s not going to shut down. He’s going to explode,” she warned him, thinking the worst. Kakashi hummed, but she saw the expression that briefly passed. He thought the same thing. She pointed to a ryokan in the distance and he gave her hand a squeeze, showing that he accepted her suggestion. “I hate you both, just so you’re aware,” she said, looking at him. He chose to ignore her, so she squeezed his hand a little too hard.

“You could have told us to pull out.”

“I’m killing you. You’re dying tonight. Do you hear me?”

“Let’s save the dirty talk for our room.”

Chapter Text

The sound of breaking glass woke her up, but she remained in bed, listening to the argument that slowly rose in volume. Obito must have arrived, because she heard him yelling. Kakashi tried using a smoother tone to try and calm the man down, but that never worked. Obito was an explosive person, something she knew and understood. She kept her eyes closed, trying to master how to sleep with the yelling, when the door to the bedroom snapped open. Kakashi tried to grab Obito’s shoulder, but Obito stepped out of reach. Obito stood at the end of the futon and glared at her, so she lifted her head, pulled her pillow from beneath it, and pressed it over her head. He snatched the pillow from her and threw it at Kakashi, satisfied when it hit the man in the face. She didn’t know what Kakashi had put into the urgent letter he’d sent, but she had a feeling it wasn’t accurate, because Obito seemed to look her over for injuries she didn’t have. Kakashi had probably lied about her health and Obito came to a very slow realization that she watched progress in the gradual calming of his features. She heard Kakashi sigh in relief, then she forced herself to a seated position and frowned at them both. She was too tired to deal with them. She wasn’t awake enough to scream at them, so she let Obito sink down on the end of the futon and try to make sense of her seemingly healthy state.

“You said she was dying,” Obito hissed, turning his head to throw a glare at Kakashi. Kakashi idly scratched his right cheek, seeming as if he’d simply made a mistake rather than openly lied. “Why am I here? She’s fine. You don’t lie to me about an emergency. I was in the mountain’s graveyard for a reason. You’re wasting my time. Maybe you need to be reassigned. Kakuzu needs a new partner again,” Obito threatened. Kana winced at the thought of Kakashi being paired with the miser. Kakashi didn’t bother feeding into the argument. He disappeared in a body flicker that left her cursing under her breath. Obito turned his heated gaze onto her and she didn’t know what to say to him to keep him from exploding on her too. She had the option to touch him, but he would likely react violently, as she recalled hitting Kakashi when the man had touched her.

“Do you remember the fun we had in Tanzaku-gai?”

“Tell me that you didn’t invite me here for another threesome, Kana.”

“Well there goes my big surprise.”

“Stop with the sarcasm. I remember Tanzaku-gai. Why am I here?” Kana did her best to remain still, even though she wanted to fidget under his hard stare. She didn’t want him yelling at her. She didn’t want him blaming her. He turned to face her and crossed his legs atop her futon, indicating that he wasn’t leaving until she confessed to him. His chakra was straining, torn between washing over her as killing intent or simply burning inside of him like a contained inferno. “Why am I here?” He was losing his patience. She reached out for Kakashi’s signature, but he was purposely doing his best to conceal his location. Obito’s chakra overwhelmed her.

“The fucking shot didn’t work, alright?” She crossed her arms over her chest and looked away from him. His expression fell flat as he tried to make sense of her admission when he had no other facts. Kakashi was a genius. Obito was a hard worker. Things came easily for Kakashi, while Obito had worked for everything he had. Kana kicked him from beneath the blankets, but he still didn’t understand her, and his confusion just made him more volatile. “I’m pregnant.” She’d expected killing intent, so when his chakra ceased its growth and he calmed, she didn’t know what to say or do. He stared at her with a blank expression, one she couldn’t decipher at all. “Kakashi and I thought you should know. I didn’t expect that idiot to tell you I was dying. It’s a minor setback. That’s all.” She gave Obito credit for not vanishing. He listened to her speak, then he hummed, as if in agreement. She knew he was hardly paying attention to her words. She felt his chakra fanning out across her as he searched for a chakra signature in a child no bigger than a poppyseed. “It’s too small. The network hasn’t started forming,” she shared, acknowledging his probing.

“Get rid of it.” He uncrossed his legs and got to his feet. He clearly meant to use the door, but he stopped before exiting. He turned toward her and leaned against the door frame while she patiently waited for him to say something more. She’d expected the explosion to take place after the reveal. Maybe his initial fight with Kakashi had relieved all of his pent-up anger and tension. “Is it mine?” She blinked a few times, the reply caught in her throat. She didn’t understand why it mattered to him when she’d called it a minor setback and he’d told her to get rid of it. He didn’t move from his spot, so he clearly expected an answer.

“It could be,” she found herself saying, her voice sounding far away. He nodded, though he seemed as absent as Kakashi had been when the man had first heard the news. She’d been wrong to think Obito would explode on her. His calmness didn’t put her at ease though. She didn’t understand why he was acting so out of character. “Are you angry?” He didn’t respond, so she licked her lips and tried to think of another question. “Did you not want me to tell you?” He didn’t respond again, and she felt her own temper ignite. “Fucking say something,” she hissed at him.

“Get rid of it. Don’t waste my time again.”

He turned his back to her and she grabbed a half-full cup of tea and threw it at his head. The cup passed right through him and broke on the floor, sending tea in every direction. He looked over his shoulder at her, but she was already on her feet, ready to start a fight with him. His visible eye dropped to her stomach and she dared him to say something to her. Their chakra collided and mixed into an ugly mess of tangled emotions that nearly knocked the wind out of her. Static kissed her senses and Kakashi stepped between them, which only earned him a cheap shot to his kidney. As much as it hurt, he still gave her an unimpressed stare, even as he clutched his back. Obito shoved him out of the way and she closed the distance, easily standing up to the man. His killing intent had once taken her breath away, but her own killing intent made her feel balanced. She tried kneeing him in the balls, so he pulled back to slap her. She blocked his blow with her forearm and kicked him hard in the shin, hurting her own foot in the process. He dipped forward at the blow connecting, then he grabbed her by her hair and dragged her out of the room as she tried and failed to strike him. He dumped her on the sofa and she tried to get up, but he slammed her back onto the couch.

“Run away. That’s all you know how to do! What did I tell you, Kakashi? He’s fantastic at fucking right off, aren’t you, Obito?” Kana spat the words at Obito and he rounded on her, intent on continuing where they’d left off. Kakashi entered the living room and approached them, ignoring Kana’s yelling.

“I think you should both sit down before I make you sit down,” Kakashi interrupted them, his words meant for Obito. Obito scoffed at him and he surprised Obito by slamming his elbow against Obito’s throat, driving the man backwards, where Obito stumbled over the coffee table and fell onto the couch beside Kana. With a sigh, Kakashi stood upright and looked at both of them, his displeasure evident in his narrowed eye. “Now that we’re sitting down. I think your apathy is aggravating,” Kakashi began, his attention shifting to Obito. Obito scoffed again and Kakashi silently dared him to do more. Kana laughed, finding humor in the way Kakashi shut Obito down. “Why don’t you try saying you want to spend more time with him instead of jumping right into fighting?” Kana’s mouth snapped closed and she glared at Kakashi, hating the way the man’s focus shifted to her.

“Spending time together got us into this mess,” Obito muttered, avoiding looking at either of them. Kana bristled and slammed her fist down on his right thigh. He reacted by backhanding her, so she tried smothering him with a pillow. Kakashi sighed, stepped forward, and yanked the pillow from Kana’s hands. He hit her over the head with the pillow and she slumped against the cushions, frowning. “Orochimaru betrayed us,” Obito admitted, earning loud laughter from Kana. He slapped her again and Kakashi separated them on the couch, treating them like children.

“I told you he was a traitorous bastard!”

“He tried to take over Itachi’s body.”

“I hope you killed him,” Kana commented, her tone sharp. When Obito didn’t immediately respond, she turned to glare at him. He sighed under her watch and waved it off, as if Orochimaru leaving the organization didn’t matter to him. Orochimaru took insider knowledge that should have earned the man a swift and merciless death. “You didn’t,” Kana frowned, slapping his knee, the only part of him she could reach. Her hand passed right through him and that only fueled her anger. “You let him get away with trying to take over Itachi’s body and now he knows the organization!”

“Don’t you think I know that? Itachi was able to scare him into leaving,” Obito admitted, reaching up to remove his mask. She didn’t care that she saw his face for the first time in weeks. Kakashi observed them, clearly waiting for one of them to lunge. “We’re down two members now, and Sasori is obsessed with getting some kind of revenge. It’s a mess,” Obito mumbled, tipping his head back to rest it against the couch. “I didn’t need this, Kana. I really didn’t need this.”

“That’s unfair. She didn’t do this to herself,” Kakashi said, drawing attention to himself again. He circled around to their side of the coffee table and sat down on it, putting him closer to their level. Obito’s words had hurt her, so she gritted her teeth and remained facing forward, refusing to look at either of them. Kakashi was right, and she didn’t care about that. They were both idiots, in her opinion. Kakashi touched her knee, so she slapped his hand until he moved it. “Kana,” Kakashi tried, earning a murderous look.

“Fuck both of you,” Kana said, getting to her feet. Obito glared at her as she walked away. She thought she heard Kakashi scold him, but she didn’t stop to hear the rest of the exchange. She went back to the bedroom and slammed the door, then she went back to the futon and sat down in the center of it, trying to work through her own thoughts and feelings. When their voices grew louder, she fell back onto the futon and pressed her hands over her ears to try and block out the sounds.

As the yelling faded into calmer tones, she turned onto her side and glared at the wall. She recalled the way Kakashi had tried holding her the previous night, how she’d shoved him right off of the futon, how he’d slept on the couch to give her the space she thought she craved but didn’t need. The silence told her that Obito had left, but when she expanded her senses, she still felt his chakra in the living room. He hadn’t left, and that only fueled her irritation with him, because he only knew how to run away. She thought she could focus on the chakra signatures of tourists roaming the village and calm down, but the chakra signatures slowly overwhelmed her, leaving her feeling drained. She stopped feeling for foreign chakra and focused on Kakashi’s electricity, just like she did in her early days in Akatsuki. He’d always been a constant. She knew they were both aware of her sensing, but neither of them bothered her. She hadn’t identified her own wants and needs; she hadn’t identified her feelings and where they came from. But Kakashi’s chakra was there, grounding her.

Obito remained in the living room, his chakra stationary, while Kakashi approached the bedroom. Kana turned onto her back and stared up at the ceiling, slowly counting down from ten. It was supposed to calm her down, or maybe it was supposed to center her. Kakashi was just as bad with feelings, despite his amazing skills as a mediator. He wouldn’t ask her to unpack how she felt, because he wouldn’t know what to do with it all. They were all hopelessly lost and it was chaotic and broken at the best of times. He slid the door open and entered the room, then he sat down next to the futon, giving her some sense of space. She turned her head to look at him and noticed that his mask was down. She saw the uncertainty in his small smile and it had her sighing and lightly patting his leg. His face always got him what he wanted, in the end. He was quite handsome. That didn’t mean she wanted to confront Obito again. That didn’t mean she wanted to leave her safe space.

“He stayed,” Kakashi said, both of them knowing she could already sense the man’s presence. She hummed, because she didn’t know what to say to the obvious statement. Despite the fact that he’d stayed, he still didn’t approach her himself. At first, she thought it was a mistake, but then she realized that it would have ended in another argument, where they would have likely said cruel things. They’d done it once. “What happened isn’t your fault. None of us planned for the shot to fail. We’ll be more careful of that in the future. Will you come out of hiding now?” His crooked smile made her heart ache, so she groaned and blindly swatted at him.

“You were smart not to send him,” she said, sitting up on the futon. He chuckled and she smiled for him. He brushed a hand over her messy hair and kissed her on the lips. “I’m still mad,” she informed him, letting him pull her to her feet. He took one of her hands and led her back to the living room, letting her ramble as they went. “I want an apology too.” His silence didn’t matter to her, because she knew he still heard the words. He let her say whatever she wanted to try and clear the air. When she saw Obito sitting on the couch, pretending to read a book about botany, she snorted. He raised his eyes from the book and Kakashi released her hand.

“You aren’t getting an apology from me.”

“Fuck you too.”

“Ah, not this again. Sit down now,” Kakashi said, pointing to the couch. Kana pressed her lips together to keep from snapping at him, then she took a seat on the couch, putting some distance between Obito and herself. “You told me you were going to give this another chance. Do I need to tell her the story about the time I walked in on you with that photo?” Obito looked as if he meant to catch Kakashi on fire with a single look. Kana looked between the two, clearly missing the pieces to the puzzle. She didn’t get the chance to ask because Kakashi pointed to her. “Start talking.”

“I’m ‘fantastic at fucking off’?” Obito didn’t have any hint of irritation in his tone, so she nodded, easily claiming the words as her own. He pursed his lips and she slipped her hands beneath her thighs, as if she needed them in contact with the couch to keep herself from falling right through the floor. “Sometimes we go months without contact,” Obito began, the rest of the words absent. She narrowed her eyes at him and he shrugged his shoulders. “That’s it. We do.”

“I walked in on Obito making out with a photo of Rin,” Kakashi shared, easily outing the other man. Obito threw a kunai at Kakashi and Kakashi deflected it with another kunai. Kana didn’t know what to make of the news until she imagined a young Obito shamelessly making out with a photograph. Her laughter made Obito red with embarrassment and rage, and she didn’t care at all. “Try again, or I’m telling her more.”

“I realize I’m not trying hard enough, in your opinion.”

“Try again.”

“I realize I’m not trying hard enough,” Obito said through gritted teeth, his narrowed eyes focused on Kakashi. Kana knew the words were for her, but she let him glare daggers at Kakashi because she understood that it made admitting his feelings easier. When he did look at her, his eyes kept dropping to her stomach, and that soured her mood and tainted everything he said. “I’m a busy man. I don’t have time to coddle you.”

“We were on our first C-rank mission and Obito decided to touch himself in the tent we shared because he thought I was asleep,” Kakashi said, cutting in before Obito could dig himself into a deeper grave. Kana hid a smile behind her hand and Obito released pent-up anger by channeling it into killing intent meant solely for Kakashi. “Try again. I have quite a few stories, Obito, and we have all day.” Obito turned on the couch so he could face her, so she turned toward him and waited for him to make another attempt.

“Is this because I told you that you were wasting my time or because I told you to get rid of it?” Kakashi clearly didn’t expect the question, because he looked from Obito to her. Kana frowned at Obito, refusing to look away from his dark eyes. It was a stupid question. She was tired of feeling like she was a waste of time for him, or just some inconvenience. But he’d asked if the child was his, and maybe that ruined the whole picture, because she didn’t know what to say to him. She hated kids. The conversation broke down when she hid behind killing intent, suffocating them all. “Now who’s running away?”

“Kana? Calm down,” Kakashi encouraged her, taking one of her hands. She hated how she felt, so she squeezed his hand repeatedly, as if silently communicating everything she felt, everything she wanted to say. Obito saw them holding hands and made a face that only angered her more. Kakashi lightly squeezed her hand back, so she swallowed all the hateful things she wanted to say to Obito. “Is this because you want to keep the baby or because he made you feel insignificant?” She hated kids. The thought immediately emerged, but she didn’t spit the venomous words at him because she hated kids, but she didn’t mind the thought of having kids with them. Her mother was laughing in the afterlife. Her projected killing intent cut off and she released her hold on Kakashi’s hand.

“Well?” Obito’s chakra was all over the place and it felt nice when she felt utterly drained. He had enough life for both of them. Kakashi shot him a warning look that he chose to ignore. “These kinds of accidents happen all of the time. You could have told me in the letter.” She hummed, then she brought both of her legs up onto the couch, crossing them. He didn’t see anything in her posture. “You can’t be serious,” Obito said, brittle laughter following. He was assuming, and she knew that. She let him go. “You actually want to keep the baby. Do you think there’s a place for it in Akatsuki? Do you think there’s a place for it when we’re striving to make Tsuki no Me a reality?” She felt stupid, and she didn’t like that feeling at all. Instead of anger, she lived in a world of hurt. He didn’t stop talking. “Tanzaku-gai was a mistake. I see that now.”

“Obito,” Kakashi warned him, his own anger surfacing. Obito didn’t expect Kakashi to grab him by the front of the cloak and shove him toward the door. He stumbled in his steps, then he went to retrieve his mask. “He’s angry,” Kakashi tried to explain, drawing her attention to him. She nodded, because she knew that. Of course she knew that. In his tone, she found strength.

“Tanzaku-gai wasn’t a mistake, you miserable piece of shit. It was probably the best day in my entire life, which has been one fucking mess after the next for as long as I can remember.” Obito’s anger disappeared and he looked at her as if he never expected her to say the words. Maybe she shouldn’t have said them. But it was the truth. She wanted every day to be like that night in Tanzaku-gai. He looked down at the mask he held in his hands. “I’m tired of feeling like I’m not good enough whenever you’re going through shit. I don’t believe in Tsuki no Me. I’m a part of Akatsuki because I love you, and I want to do everything I can to help you, and that seems like a stupid fucking reason now. I quit. Find someone else stupid enough to listen to your shit. Be fantastic at fucking off again, Obito.”

“Fine.”

Obito put his mask back on and disappeared, leaving Kana to stare at the spot where he once stood. She didn’t cry very often, because crying exposed a part of herself she never liked to acknowledge. She couldn’t remember the last time she cried over something. She always found better ways to be productive. When she was sad, she channeled anger to get her through some of the worst moments of her life. When she tried to draw on that anger, she found nothing. Kakashi didn’t look like he knew what to make of the situation, but when he saw the tears gather in her eyes, he sat next to her. He tried touching her, but she covered her face with her hands and turned away from him. She thought he would leave her alone, but he didn’t. She’d ruined whatever had existed between Obito and herself, and she’d dragged Kakashi down with her. She didn’t even know if he wanted to leave the organization. She didn’t know if he planned on going with her, or if he felt the same way that Obito felt, that she was ruining everything with her selfish, split-second decision to consider building a life with them. Wasn’t it alright to dream? Maybe not. Her hopes and dreams really had no place in Tsuki no Me. He’d told her what she’d needed to hear in that hotel in Lightning, and she’d disregarded the words, time and time again. She blamed herself.

Chapter Text

They stayed in Yugakure for three days before finally addressing their departure. Kakashi managed to lure her into the living room, where she sat on the couch and stared at the spot where Obito once stood. When Kakashi tried to broach the subject of their departure, she refused to look at him. Paranoia told her that he was with her because he felt sorry for her, even though he made it quite clear that he chose to stay with her. Her selfish decision and hasty reaction had driven Obito out of their lives. She didn't know how he could stand to look at her, let alone speak to her. He sat down on the coffee table, blocking her view of the room, then he took both of her hands in his. They hadn't talked about the pregnancy she had yet to terminate. It was another conversation they couldn't avoid. She felt him squeeze her hands, so she squeezed back. She was present, for the most part, even if she liked to remember every terrible thing that had ever happened to her. Trauma was interesting. She would have known more about the inner workings of her mind if she hadn't dodged her psychiatric evaluations.

"This isn't like you."

"No, it's not. This is what happens when compartmentalization fails. You end up facing down everything wrong in your life and hating yourself. I'll be fine."

"We need to move. I know we've been avoiding this conversation for days, but we're missing nin. We can't afford to stay for an extended period of time, not so close to the Land of Fire." She frowned, but she didn't disagree with him. They should have left the same day of the fight. He claimed they'd both been avoiding the conversation, but his tone gave him away. He'd lied to make her feel better. "We also need to address the baby. Are you keeping it?" Her temper stirred, but he squeezed her hands. He wasn't saying it to get her defensive. "I need to know."

"I don't know. I fucked up. What am I supposed to do with some kid? I was just hurt and angry, and now I don't fucking know. You don't want it. Obito doesn't want it. I don't even like kids! They're disgusting and they cry too much." She still thought of what it would be like to have that life and quickly set that image on fire. Kakashi leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers, bringing her out of her thoughts. He rested his hands on her hips and she lightly poked his beauty mark. "I want more time, just a few days. We'll need to stop near a place with a decent hospital." It was a simple request, so he agreed by kissing her again. "Are you sure you want to come with me? I know how you feel."

"I'm where I want to be," he shrugged, giving her hands another squeeze before he released them. She wondered where he'd learned the trick, how simple touch could speak volumes, even with their clothes on. Maybe it was Botan. "Let's go. We're going to meet with a former contact of mine. Have you been to Curtain Village?" Her chest ached and he caught her expression before she could mask it. Of course the world wanted her to revisit places that reminded her of times she just wanted to bury. "You've been there with him."

"No. I went with Itachi. He helped me take down a sex trafficking ring."

"Did something happen?"

"Relax. Nothing happened. Who's your contact?"

"Momochi Zabuza." She sighed at the name, immediately thinking of the man's long bingo book page. The demon of the mist. She almost made a comment, but she nodded. He saw right through her and smiled, clearly amused at the judgement she passed on a man no different than themselves. In the end, they were all missing nin. "He's not a contact because of his positive opinion on Konoha. It's a personal favor he owes me." He finished zipping up the front of her shirt, since she'd given up between her sore breasts. She frowned at him and swatted his arm, but he silenced her complaints with another kiss.

"Akatsuki wants him. Obito had deep ties in Kirigakure. Maybe we can trade the warning for something too. I'm willing to sell information."

"If you hand over information about Akatsuki, there's no going back, Kana. He won't forgive you."

"I fucking know that, thanks. I know. We have to look out for ourselves now though."

They packed up what belongings they'd unpacked and she strapped her wakizashi on. She felt a little bloated, so she pressed on her front until she gave up and flipped off her own reflection. Kakashi found her as she was strapping her kunai pouch to her thigh. He looked dangerous in his armor, so she smiled and punched his exposed upper arm. He swatted her ass as she walked by. They both had their cloaks sealed away, Kana with the intent to burn it, Kakashi with the intent to use it again. She didn't want to return to Curtain Village, but she trusted Kakashi to have their best interests in mind. As they left Yugakure, she tried not to think of the way the basements had smelled. She recalled the standing water and she closed her eyes. It was a memory best left at the ryokan.

March brought the beginnings of hanami. A merchant pathway leading from the Land of Hot Water was lined with plum trees in the middle of blooming. The unusually warm breeze carried petals away, the scent of the flowers in every inhale. When he noticed the sweat on her brow, Kakashi pulled her hair into a ponytail and patted her lower back. She’d forgotten how thoughtful he could be. She had to remind herself that he was a decent human being. He'd gotten better at expressing himself. She blamed Botan. Or maybe it was more that she thanked the woman.

The trip to the Land of Silence was a long one, made worse by her frequent need to stop and rest. Every time she needed to stop, she lost a little more dignity. Kakashi didn't voice his opinion, but she thought the worst. Obito would have been openly annoyed or offered to carry her to save them time. Kakashi let her proceed on her own and define her temporary limitations. He adjusted on the fly, and he was equally helpful when they made camp. His behavior made her think that he would demand to hunt for them, but when she volunteered, he simply shrugged and went to collect firewood. She managed to take down a wild boar, so they ate well. And when it was time to pick watches, he let her choose her preference.

"You're really weird," she frowned, looking at him from her sleeping bag. He arched a brow at her and she wetted her lips, stalling to try and decipher what she truly meant. "It's enjoyable." He smiled at her, his eyes closed. After a moment’s hesitation, she crooked a finger at him and he joined her on her side of the fire. She fell asleep to him rubbing her back, and she woke up to him saying her name.

"It's your watch. Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Get some sleep. I'll make something for breakfast."

The nights were cooler than the days, reminding her of the winter they'd left behind. A blanket draped over her shoulders, she took sips of water from her bottle and tried to ignore the sounds of the woods at night. Once, she caught herself dozing off, but she startled herself awake when her head dipped toward the side. Any time she tried to occupy her mind, her thoughts went right to Tanzaku-gai, followed by the last argument she'd had with Obito. She'd promised herself she wouldn't search for him, so she didn't. She poked at the fire with a stick, trying to move the wood around and keep the fire going, the warmth of it reminding her of the feel of Obito’s chakra against her senses. She hated those thoughts too. By morning, she felt half sick, but she still managed to use their dwindling supplies to make a halfway decent stew with the remainder of meat. It wasn't a breakfast food, but it worked. The smell woke Kakashi.

"We need to refill our supplies in Curtain. How are we on money?" She looked up from her bowl and he hummed around a mouthful of food. She'd taken quite a lot before they'd left for their mission. She'd anticipated shopping for supplies, but she hadn't thought they'd need to survive off the funds long term.

"We have enough to get our supplies, then we'll need to start taking missions. This favor from Zabuza will get us temporary work in rebuilding in Kirigakure. Since the resistance won, he was offered a pardon. We might even be able to stay." Kakashi looked over at her and she hid her distaste in a spoonful of stew that made her stomach churn. She set the bowl aside. "I know you hate the humidity and you've called it 'swamp hell' but we're low on options here, Kana. You're dragging your feet on this pregnancy. You won't have a choice if you let this go. It'll give us time."

"You're staying?"

"You think I'd leave you to handle this on your own?"

"Kakashi, you don't want kids. You aren't a family man. I don't expect you to rise up to the occasion for this. I won't blame you if you decide to fuck off."

"My dad was a pretty good dad, and I was an accident," he admitted, touching a taboo subject that had her staring at him in shock. He didn't look at her, but she'd heard the words. "I told you I wasn't going anywhere and I'm not going back on that." She frowned and rested her hands on her thighs. He thought he had the last word, but she didn't want to end things with him thinking he was required to be there because of some words spoken when he was suffering from chakra exhaustion.

"Kakashi, that's not a happy life. You aren't obligated to stay with me. You were suffering from chakra exhaustion when you said those words. I know you love me, but I don't expect you to suffer through this with me. Obito said he loved me and ran off at the first sign of trouble. Men leave sometimes."

"I'm better than that."

"Fine," she sighed, eyeing the remnants of her stew. After another moment of thought, she passed him the bowl and he retrieved some trail mix for her to snack on. The pieces of chocolate were nice. "Promise me you'll think about what I said," she told him, the words spoken as they broke camp. He squeezed one of her hands.

Curtain Village was as terrible as she remembered. She wrinkled her nose at the people they passed and the overwhelming stench of patchouli. Her mission was to locate Zabuza. She'd never met the man, but Kakashi stressed that the man had mastered water techniques and felt like a real demon when it came to overall presence. In a village filled with equally bad men, Kakashi had given her close to nothing. Obito had once called her useless, and she felt useless again. Street by street, she searched for a man known for causing the dramatic shift in his home village's graduation exam. He was a murderer. The village was full of murderers. The helpful tip Kakashi supplied came with the offhand remark that he thought the boy Zabuza had taken in was from the Yuki clan. There was a possibility that the boy had his clan's kekkei genkai. So they restarted their search. Before she located an ice release user, she felt a familiar chakra signature skulking about near one of the market stalls. Gengo had an entourage that made her think he'd finally moved up in the world. She temporarily lost track of the chakra signatures to focus on him. Kakashi caught her staring.

"He's the despot. The daimyo was murdered a year ago. He calls his followers the Enlightened Ones. We're not here for him, Kana."

"Tch. Fine. Three blocks down, we'll make a left. It's the kid."

Warm embers kissed her senses and she gasped, her head whipping to the right, where she stared into the distance. The feeling came and went so quickly that she doubted her abilities. Distracted, she bumped into Kakashi's back and the man stumbled forward. For a brief moment, Obito had tracked them. Kakashi waved a hand in front of her face, so she bit down on her lower lip. She was torn between admitting what she'd felt or keeping it a secret. She didn't need long to decide when she considered how Kakashi treated her. She raised her arm and pointed in the general direction of where she'd felt the chakra originate.

"He tracked us, just for a second," she said, the words vague but pointed. He didn't need to hear Obito’s name to understand the information. He frowned, and she lowered her arm. "I'm sure of it," she decided, knowing the unspoken question in his gaze. Kakashi opened his mouth to speak and she placed a finger over his masked lips. "I don't care. If he wants us, he can come and get us. Until he decides to grow the fuck up and do that, he can enjoy stalking us."

"You're both too stubborn. I'm surprised your relationship went anywhere."

"We weren't in a relationship. We fucked and fought feelings."

"Ah, my mistake."

He slapped her ass to get her to focus on something other than the sudden absence of Obito’s chakra and she narrowed her eyes at him. He leaned in as if he were going to kiss her, then he disappeared in a swirl of leaves, leaving her to play cat and mouse through the streets of the village. He knew just how to occupy her mind. Eventually, she caught up to him and they resumed tracking the ice release boy. Kakashi pointed them out when she announced they were in the vicinity, but she couldn't have missed the large blade strapped to Zabuza's back. He'd clearly taken the sword when he'd abandoned the village. The boy she tracked was young, but slightly older than Naruto. He was scrawny, but he was dressed in decent clothing. Something said he was familiar. Neither of them looked rough, as if they lived on the road. When she saw Zabuza's face, she wondered why he'd taken in the boy. His chakra signature reminded her of ice cold water, as if it ran through his veins. The boy beside him had lighter chakra, but it was heavier, in comparison. If she couldn't decipher the boy's chakra signature, she would have assumed the kid was a girl.

"If it isn't the copy ninja," Zabuza greeted them, glancing over his left shoulder to watch their approach. Kakashi rubbed the back of his head, appearing sheepish. "You're a long way from home," he commented, going back to playing a card game with a man clearly trying and failing to cheat. "Haku, say hello to our new friends."

"Hello," Haku said, bowing to them. Kana stared at him, expecting more from the kid than a polite greeting and awkward silence. Haku clearly waited for them to bow, but Kana nudged Kakashi’s arm and he settled for waving at the boy. She chose to ignore Haku altogether.

"How did you end up owing Kakashi a favor?"

"He smuggled Haku out for me a couple of years ago. I told him I'd make good on it. There isn't much to tell."

"So you're playing the part of his father now? Aren't you a little young?"

"We're traveling in the same direction. That's all."

Kana frowned, but she gave up on her line of questioning. Haku seemed interested in the card game, but she knew the boy had followed the conversation. When the card game ended, Zabuza was up five hundred ryo. Kana wanted some of that luck. Since Zabuza was more familiar with the area, he led them to an old teahouse, where they could have some semblance of privacy. The place was rundown, like many of the buildings in Curtain, and it smelled like cheap alcohol and foreign cigars. Kana waved some smoke away from her face and stepped closer to Kakashi to avoid touching people heading for the exit. Kakashi put his hand on her lower back and nudged her along to keep up with Zabuza.

They took a table near the rear of the teahouse, where a divider prevented them from seeing the next table. Since Zabuza won the hand of cards, he covered the cost of the jasmine tea he decided they would drink. When the cups and teapot arrived, only Haku prepared a cup of tea. Kana didn't want to eat or drink anything in the disgusting village, and Kakashi and Zabuza were too paranoid to give the teahouse a chance.

"So who's this? You didn't mention anyone else accompanying you," Zabuza remarked, nodding his head towards Kana.

"Maa, she's my cute little wife," Kakashi lied, his cheery tone clearly amusing Zabuza. The man didn't believe it for a second. Kana snorted and drove her elbow into Kakashi's side. He made a cup of tea, as if he were going to drink it.

"Kana," she introduced herself. "We're traveling in the same direction." She echoed the words the man had spoken earlier and he chuckled. Kakashi stirred sugar into the tea he would never drink, while she lightly drummed her fingers atop the table. "Are you coming to Kiri with us? This place is a shit hole."

"It's a nice shit hole, but yes. If I'm not there, you're not getting in. It's that simple. How long do you plan on staying? It's still the bloody mist. Outside of Kirigakure, the battles are still being fought."

"We haven't decided. Long enough to overstay our welcome."

"If Konoha wants you, you're going to be tossed out on your asses. Mei isn't a bleeding heart. She didn't win the title of Mizukage because of her looks."

"That's fine. We don't want to cause any trouble," Kakashi joined in, interrupting before Kana had the chance to insult their former village. Kakashi lightly patted her thigh to indicate that he would handle it, both in the current conversation and in Kirigakure. "We were hoping to weasel another favor out of you," he shared, earning an unimpressed look from the deserter. "You're on the radar for Akatsuki, and my guess is that they know exactly where you are right now."

"Not interested."

"That's not how Akatsuki works."

"I'll take the warning. Consider it payment for the tea. Meet us outside the south entrance at dawn. And tell your wife to stop glaring at me. It's rude."

Kana considered throwing the hot tea on him, but she settled for glaring in another direction. She heard the man chuckling as he left the table. Haku bid them goodbye with another bow, then the boy went to catch up with his traveling companion. Kakashi frowned at his cup of tea, clearly annoyed that they hadn't received another favor. Kana lifted the lid on the teapot and sniffed the tea, then she shoved the pot aside. The jasmine tea wasn't worth it. Kakashi silently offered her his cup and she put it with the teapot. They'd never discussed staying overnight in the village. She could imagine what the hotels were like in the village. They were likely falling apart and infested with bedbugs. She thought he was distracted by the same thoughts, but when she touched his leg, he forced a smile. Maybe they didn't have the money to stay. Kana had never been short on money. In Konoha, she'd never stopped taking missions; in Akatsuki, the funds fell into her hands. She couldn't imagine trying to raise some snot-nosed brat on almost nothing.

"We don't have the money, do we?"

"I'll take care of it."

Chapter Text

Kana had been on the road for two years, but she still remembered what a real home felt like. The house before them had a small yard in front with honeysuckle, and vibrant ivy grew along one side of the house, as if the plant life meant to overtake the whole building. It was common in Kirigakure. She saw dozens of homes in the same shape. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the cute starter home. In summer, the smell of honeysuckle would envelope the house, where it would easily enter open windows above the kitchen sink. Every breath would sing of honeysuckle in bloom. She could imagine raising a family there. She could imagine going to bed with Kakashi and waking up with Kakashi. Beside her, he likely saw and felt similar things. He saw the chance to experience what it felt like to have real stability in his life. He imagined being a father and having the responsibility of raising a child to be better than himself. The house was perfect. It was everything a growing family could want. Kana hated it there. And she knew that Kakashi hated it there too.

"It's something," Kakashi managed to say, his eyes on the green shutters on the windows. Green. Kana's favorite color. Everything about the home was green. She still hated it. "It's just for a while," he continued, clearly trying to convince them both. He'd pulled a lot of strings to get the home, selling information on their former village for capital. That had hurt him. There was nothing she could say to make him feel better about the beginning of their lives in Kirigakure. He already looked miserable. She made him miserable. She hated that too.

"It's cute," she admitted. It was the perfect home for someone else. She didn't know how to settle down. She wasn't made to settle down. But there she was, looking at a representation of her future. The house was missing warmth, and she knew they were missing Obito. "This little shit better appreciate it," she muttered, glaring down at her stomach. Kakashi chuckled and she felt his hand on her lower back. It was a small comfort. She still felt terrible. "I know you hate it, Kakashi," she said, turning her head to see his profile. He didn't look at her.

"Hate is a strong word."

"I know."

"Let's look inside."

His hand fell from her lower back and he went to open the door, leaving her to stare at the front of the house. She thought he would go inside without her, but he motioned for her to join him. He would pretend to like everything about the interior, just as he'd pretended to like everything about the exterior. And she would remain utterly silent, because it was easier that way. He closed them into the house and the first thing she noticed was the yellow wallpaper dotted with white daisies. She wanted to rip the wallpaper from the walls and set it on fire. Her frown told Kakashi everything he needed to know about her opinion of the interior decorating. He could have tried to excuse everything wrong, but he didn't. Nothing about the yellow wallpaper or thick, cream-colored tatami appealed to her. The upstairs was better than the downstairs, and the master bedroom had an attached bathroom, giving the home two bathrooms and two bedrooms.

Kakashi looked into the closet in the master bedroom, then he peered out of one of the windows. It was plain, but still better than the downstairs. The second bedroom was smaller, but she didn't care. The one thing she enjoyed about the home was the kitchen, even though she knew she wasn't going to be cooking frequently. Kakashi was the better cook. It was cute. It was perfect. It wasn't what they wanted. They stayed in the open kitchen, as if they meant to discuss everything they'd seen during their walk through. He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed, while she curled and uncurled her toes on the white linoleum. They didn't want to be there. They wanted more nights in Tanzaku-gai.

"I know I make you miserable."

"You don't make me miserable."

"You aren't happy. That's for sure." She looked up from the pristine purple polish on her toenails and found him staring at her. He looked as lost as she felt. Life was different without snark and sarcasm. She didn't like it as much. He didn't try to touch her, so she crossed her arms over her chest to make herself feel more secure. "Can you just fucking hold me or something?" He wrapped his arms around her and she breathed in the smell of sandalwood. When he let her go, she tugged his mask down and pressed a kiss to his lips.

"It's just for a while," he repeated, reassuring them both. She grunted at the words and he sighed, because they both knew the length of their stay would stretch on for too long. "We can start renovating? I know the wallpaper and tatami have to go." She lightly patted his right side, a silent agreement. He knew her thoughts on the matter. "I'll let you rip the wallpaper down."

"You know exactly how to treat a girl."

"I try. If you want to start, I wanted to pick up some essentials from the market. That warning earned us some ryo from Zabuza."

"Fine. Get the fuck out."

He chuckled at her language and kissed her once more, then he put his mask back into place and left. She waited until she heard the door close behind him so she could sigh and survey the kitchen again. She liked to imagine the previous owners enjoyed cooking together, just from the size of the room. Instead of staying in the kitchen, she went to the living room to address the wallpaper. By the time Kakashi returned, she had three walls stripped and part of the entryway. He helped her remove the higher parts that she'd missed, and she helped him put away the groceries. It all felt sickeningly domestic, something especially foreign to her. Kakashi had more experience, because of his time with Botan. The time they spent on renovations had her doubting her commitment to having a family. After they stopped for the night, Kakashi cooked teriyaki salmon and rice in their new kitchen, and they ate at the low table in the dining room. He looked different in the light. She wondered if she looked different too.

"I thought we could start training you with your mangekyou."

"We'll have some free time in the evening. I don't mind flirting with chakra exhaustion."

"That's the spirit."

She stopped eating when she felt a familiar chakra enter the limits of Kirigakure. Her chopsticks hovering in the air, a bite of rice caught between them, she followed the feeling of embers through the village. Kakashi tried to understand her sudden pause, so she made eye contact. Without speaking, she pointed in the direction of the chakra signature. She thought that Obito might knock on their door, since he clearly meant to locate them. She held her breath as he neared the house. He stood outside the door, as if he meant to make amends from the doorstep, but his chakra vanished. He knew where they were and he still chose not to bridge the distance put between them with her backwards decision to try and raise an accident. Maybe she was crazy for it. She shoved the bite of rice into her mouth. He kept looking at the door.

"The salmon is good," Kana complimented, her focus on anything but the sudden absence of Obito’s chakra. Kakashi hummed to acknowledge the words, then he resumed eating. They never went back to the topic of the man. They both pretended he'd never been there at all.

Chapter Text

"Again."

Kana threw a single shuriken at Kakashi and he sent it to kamui, surpassing his previous limit of two uses. He looked dizzy, so she returned the remainder of her shuriken to the pouch beside her left foot and moved from the shade into the morning sunlight. She took a bottle of water to him and he downed half of its contents before he slowly sank to the ground. She dropped a small towel on his head and he used it to wipe the sweat from along his hairline. In the three months they'd spent in Kirigakure, he'd improved his usage of the sharingan and his ability to use kamui, but he still felt as if he could do better. Kana had never given as much positive reinforcement as he needed to keep going, but she tried. For three months, with his average reserves, he was exceeding expectations. He handed her his sweaty towel and she frowned at the damp material before dumping it in the grass.

After she sat down in the grass, he rested his head on her lap and closed his eyes to block out the sunlight cutting through the cloud cover. He prodded her growing stomach, so she slapped him hard on his stomach. With a groan of pain, he opened his right eye to look up at her.

"I already told you it's not moving yet."

She swatted his stomach again and he sighed at her. Neither of them had discussed how they felt about the progress of her pregnancy. Whenever the topic came up, she changed the subject. He seemed more willing to see it through, while she still didn't know how she felt. They were supposed to do a paternity test, something Kakashi had suggested. She had a feeling he would reach out to Obito, but he'd dodged the subject too many times. She hadn't felt Obito’s chakra signature since their first meal in their new house. Maybe he'd lost interest. After his disappearing act, she was wrong to hope he hadn't. As she shoved the thoughts aside, she massaged Kakashi's scalp with her fingers, quietly combing them through his wild hair. His eye closed again.

"Do you want to work on your stretches?" He didn't open his eyes when he asked the question, so he didn't see her expression. She still worked out, refusing to give up on staying in shape. When she didn't respond, he opened his right eye. "I'm not going anywhere. I need some time to relax." He sat up so she could get to her feet, then he lay in the grass, his head turned to the side to see her. Yoga helped her whenever she had bad days, so she silently shifted through her poses, then went into katas. She wanted to spar, but he'd shut her down. "I have a mission tomorrow morning," he informed her, the words background noise as she moved.

"Another one from the Mizukage?" She looked over her shoulder at him and he made a so-so motion with his left hand. The missions were always unofficial anyway. The pay was decent though, and it kept a roof over their heads. "I made an appointment for the paternity test." She wondered if it even mattered to him, given his determination to see the whole thing through. She stopped her katas. "I'll kill you if you even think about reaching out. I want you to know that." He smiled, and she knew he would go behind her back, if he really needed to. She picked up a handful of grass and dropped it on his head.

"I would never do that to you, Kana."

"Fucking liar."

"Mm, nope. I don't know what you're talking about."

He held out his hands and she tugged him to his feet in one go. He draped an arm over her shoulders and she helped him as they left the training ground. The place was nothing like Konoha, but she'd grown used to the village. She still hated it, but she'd learned to tolerate it. Sometimes she wondered what her life would have been like if she'd never left Konoha. She would have had more awkward dinners, more of her mother aggravating her and making her feel like a failure, more of a life with Kakashi. She didn't miss the politics, but she missed her loft. She missed her cat too. Kakashi pressed a masked kiss to her head and she rolled her eyes at the brief show of affection. As soon as they reached the edge of the village, he let his arm fall from her shoulders. Public displays of affection were rare with them. Neither of them felt at ease enough to appear even remotely attached.

"Do you want me to go with you to the appointment?" She pursed her lips and tried to imagine his anxiety as they waited in an exam room. He hadn't attended any of her other appointments. She didn't expect him to suffer through the process. She didn't need him to hold her hand. "I don't mind," he lied, making her laugh.

"You hate hospitals. I don't need you to hold my hand for any of this. I'll go and get back before you leave for your mission," she shrugged. He looked unsure, because they both knew couples typically attended the appointments together. They were unorthodox when it came to her pregnancy, and she didn't care. "It's nothing. If you want to do something for me, cook dinner tonight."

"I cook almost every meal."

"And I appreciate it. Thank you."

At home, she led the way inside and they left their sandals by the door. The place looked a lot better with the taupe paint and hardwood flooring. It was bearable. Kakashi went right for the couch, where he collapsed on the cushions and sighed. To help him with his chakra exhaustion, she went to get leftovers for lunch. He ate a lot whenever he overextended himself, and she ate too much in general. Since he refused to leave the couch, they ate in the living room, where he sat up to allow her space to sit on the couch. Halfway through their meal, someone knocked on their front door. Kakashi placed his bowl on the coffee table and went to answer it, while she tried to listen in to decipher whatever the two said. When she couldn't hear them, she put her bowl down and went to investigate. She arrived as Kakashi was closing the door. The person on their doorstep did a body flicker, so she had no idea about the person's identity.

"The mission is starting a little earlier than expected." She frowned, though not because she disliked having the house to herself. She'd wanted to tell him about the results from the test. "I have about twenty minutes to pack," he sighed, clearly still worn out from their training. She wanted him to decline the mission, but they really had no choice in the matter. The agreement was that they would accept any mission that presented itself. He had to take the mission. "Could you pack me something better to eat than trail mix?"

"Yeah. I'll give you the rest of the leftovers. Don't push yourself too hard. You're still low on chakra."

"Yes, Dr. Uchiha."

"Of fuck off with that. Go pack." He pressed a kiss to her cheek, then he did a body flicker, leaving a tiny pile of leaves behind. She glared at the green leaves scattered on the floor and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Asshole," she muttered, leaving the mess for later. She thought that he would be kind enough to clean up his mess before he left, but she was wrong. The front door closed behind him and the leaves remained on the hardwood. She left it for the morning.

In the morning, she made eggs and toast, then she swept up the leaves Kakashi had left. She didn't expect any earth-shattering news from her appointment, so her morning was routine. Unlike in Konoha, the wait times were long in Kirigakure, so she took one of Kakashi's many books to read. She chose one about a captain stranded at sea, because the cover looked interesting. The weather was nice, though foggy, and the walk to the hospital was quiet. It was another day, right up until she found herself waiting incredibly long for the test results. The longer it took for her to receive the news, the worse she felt. Maybe she should have asked Kakashi to postpone the mission and accompany her, but it was too late for that. When the door to her exam room opened, she rested her hands on her thighs and awaited the verdict. Kakashi had already done his portion for the test. She’d dragged her feet submitting the paperwork and visiting the hospital. She shouldn't have.

"He's not the father."

"Oh."

"Do you know who the father is? We can always do another test to confirm it."

"That won't be necessary. It doesn't matter. Thanks."

She left in the middle of the old woman's sentence, entirely unconcerned with the rest of the words. She'd hoped it was Kakashi's kid, because that would have made everything much easier. Lying about it was still an option, but the more she thought about it, the more she hated it. He deserved the truth, even if he reached out to Obito. She knew Obito wouldn't want anything to do with the kid, as he'd shown when he'd left them. She was more concerned with Kakashi's reaction, since he meant to help raise a kid that wasn't his. She didn't know she was leaking killing intent until she noticed the way the morning crowd parted for her. The whole experience made her tired. When she calmed down, she couldn't help the frown on her lips. Some part of her hoped Obito would care. She wished she could set that part on fire.

Chapter Text

The mission took a month, where every day made her wonder if he would come back at all. She'd get another notice that a man she loved had died. She kept groceries in the house, planted pink tulips she ended up hating, and read three books on the political climate during the second war. For the first time, she'd spoken to their neighbors, an older couple with a new dog that barked at all hours of the night. It was a hot summer night when Kakashi returned. The sound of the door opening startled her, but she easily recognized his chakra signature. She listened to him as he moved around the house, tracking his footsteps from the front door to the kitchen, where he likely ate well for the first time in weeks. She dozed off before he joined her in bed, so she woke up to his arm draped over her waist. He was warm against her back, and she heard him sigh as he relaxed into the mattress. He'd likely slept on the ground every night. He should have gone to sleep, but she felt his bare lips against an exposed portion of her neck. Sometimes he was too wired to sleep; sometimes he was too exhausted to sleep. Either way, he continued kissing her.

"You took forever," she greeted him, wrapping his arm tighter around herself. He sounded tired as he hummed out a response. She thought he might ask about the paternity test, but he didn't. "Is there some reason why you won't touch me? It's kind of annoying." The mattress shifted as he moved, so she peered over her shoulder at him. She didn't know why she bothered to ask when she wasn't in the mood. Maybe she just wanted to make him feel like shit for worrying her. That seemed fair. He kissed her neck again and slid a hand up the front of her shirt. He was tired. She laced their fingers together to keep him from touching her breasts. "In the morning."

"Thank you. I'm exhausted." He kissed her once more, then he settled down beside her. She stared at the curtains on their window, silently contemplating beginning the conversation when he was too tired to handle the news. "It's not mine, is it?" He still held her, despite how tired he sounded when he touched the topic that could have waited for the morning. Again, she contemplated lying to him, but it really wasn't her style.

"No, it's not." He sighed at her words and she squeezed his hand. "I don't give a fuck what you do with the news. Tell him I'm dying again. Tell him it's dead. Tell him to spontaneously combust." Her anger stirred with every word, and his lack of response didn't help. She glared at the curtains and he brushed his hand over her stomach. He'd never tried to touch her there before. She didn't really like it, but she let it go. The baby still hadn't moved.

"I'll worry about it tomorrow."

"Fine."

He woke her up by rubbing her side, and she turned onto her back so he could kiss her on the lips. He still looked tired, so she touched his cheek and leaned up for another kiss. He clearly meant to keep his word by making love to her, but he wasn't hard and she didn't feel like helping him. She checked the clock on the bedside table and sighed through her nose. He'd let her sleep in. It was kind of him, but she knew she would end up napping later in the day. The first time she felt warm embers, her good morning turned to hell. She shot Kakashi an accusatory look and he replied with a sheepish smile that only made her want to bury him alive. She thought that Obito would leave, or maybe that he would appear in the center of their bedroom and start an argument that should have been dead months ago. Instead, he knocked on the front door, and Kana exchanged a brief look with Kakashi. Kakashi kissed her on the lips, then he slipped out of bed, showing that he was fully dressed. He'd woken up to reach out to Obito. Of course he did.

Kana clicked her tongue, then she sat up and surveyed the bedroom to find where she'd left her robe. She thought she heard the two talking, so she took her time, purposely testing Obito’s patience. Eventually, Kakashi arrived to collect her. She stopped in the doorway to their room and looked down the length of the hallway to the staircase.

"What did you tell him?"

"I told him you were going to apologize."

"Fuck you. He can rot, for all I care."

"Both of you are impossible. Let's go. He's not stupid enough to think you're ready to apologize, and he's in a good mood." Kakashi tied her robe closed for her and pressed a kiss to her forehead, then he gave her a nudge toward the stairs, where she took her sweet time going downstairs. She could tell by Kakashi's sigh that he was thoroughly done with her attitude. She saw a large argument in her future. "Try not to break anything. I don't feel like replacing items today."

"I make no promises," Kana frowned, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her robe. She looked down at her stomach, as if she would find strength in it, then she tried to go back upstairs, but Kakashi decided to clothesline her and turn her back around. "I hate you," she huffed, earning a cheeky grin from him. Downstairs, he walked behind her to keep her moving.

Obito looked up when she entered the room, and his eyes stayed on her stomach. She saw his lips twitch for the beginning of a frown, but he schooled his features, leaving her to try and find hints in his chakra signature. It was calm, the opposite of what she expected. Since he wanted to play nice, she joined him on the couch, putting space between them. He turned toward her on the couch, so she tucked one leg underneath her and faced him. He looked her over, though his eyes lingered on her stomach again. He hadn't tracked them in months, clearly consumed with Akatsuki.

"You told me she wanted to apologize. We both know that's a lie, Kakashi." Obito threw a glare that had Kakashi waving off the words. When Obito focused on her again, he sighed, as if he didn't know where to begin to throw them into another argument. "You didn't get rid of it," he said, like they needed to hear the words. She hummed and his eyes went from her face to her stomach, where they stayed. "So you're playing house?"

"You know me, I can't resist trapping a man in some arrangement that leaves him miserable." Kakashi frowned at the words, and she knew they would have a disagreement about her words. Obito snorted and she crossed her arms over her chest, hoping he would say something stupid again so she could blind him in his right eye. "I know you aren't here to apologize, and I'm not going to apologize." He didn't disagree with the words, so she chose to rip the bandage off in one smooth motion. "It's yours, by the way. Congratulations. Your stupidity will be passed on to the next generation."

"I told you to get rid of it."

"I don't listen very well."

"Obviously. What do you want from me?"

"Money," she said, even though it didn't matter to her. Kakashi looked confused, because they were perfectly fine financially. She wanted Obito, but she refused to say it aloud. He nodded, as if he'd expected it. Maybe he really thought she meant to use him for his money. That angered her. "For fuck's sake, Obito. Do you want to be involved? Do you care? I don't want your money, you idiot. I want you." Embarrassed at her outburst, she turned away from him to burn holes in the far wall. Kakashi broke the awkward silence by clearing his throat, which was the signal Obito needed to string words together.

"I don't have time for this."

"If you even think about leaving right now, I will make it so your remains are unidentifiable." He stopped his attempt to stand and settled on the cushions, clearly hating the threat. She meant the words. She was angry enough. "What kind of a dick tells a woman he loves her and vanishes like a well-trained magician when she ends up pregnant? Hint, it's you. Why don't you man up, for once in your fucking life, and take responsibility for this? How hard is it to visit? How hard is it to stop looking thoroughly pissed off at the thought of having a life with us? Yes, Obito. Us. You abandoned Kakashi too."

"Ah, maybe we could focus on you two," Kakashi interrupted, earning glares from both of them. He shrugged his shoulders and left the room. Obito had the decency to sigh, as if he hadn't meant to chase Kakashi away.

"You're sure it's mine?"

"No, Obito, I fuck so many men that I'm really not sure."

"I don't know what you do in your free time."

She slapped him and he narrowed his eyes at her. She could tell he wanted to hit her back, so she wasn't shocked when he returned the favor by backhanding her. She touched the inside of her cheek with her tongue and tasted blood. It was an exchange of cheap shots, but she understood physical pain better than emotional pain. She could handle him hurting her that way.

"It's yours. Kakashi wasn’t a match. I didn't sleep with anyone else. It's yours." She had to repeat the words to make sure he understood them. He didn't look happy. She wondered if the old Obito would have been happy. He'd been such a stupid kid. He probably would have enjoyed being a father. "I'll figure it out," she finally said, ending the conversation. "I guess you've done enough."

"What I want for myself doesn't matter. It hasn't mattered in ten years."

"You're a shit liar. You wanted me before and you want me right now. I'm right here. I've been right here for months."

"I told you to get rid of it, Kana."

"And I didn't. I want you involved. I want you to show me that you didn't lie to me when you told me you loved me."

"I never knew my parents. I don't know the first thing about being a father." She stared at him as he slowly worked through his thoughts and feelings. He covered his face with his hands and she touched his knee. "Let me know when it's due." She smiled, even though he couldn't see the expression. She'd won, and winning always felt good. Maybe they wouldn't have more nights like the one in Tanzaku-gai, but there was a chance for something more. His hands dropped and his eyes went to her stomach again. When he met her gaze, she smiled again. "So I'm a magician?"

Chapter Text

Kana waited for a heartbeat that never came. Maybe she should have known something was wrong. The chakra network was fully formed, but empty. The doctor tried talking to her, but she couldn't understand half of what the woman said. She looked sad, and she patted Kana's hand, as if that simple gesture would fix everything. Maybe she should have felt sad, but she simply nodded and muttered out her thanks. She pushed her shirt down and slid off the exam table, but she hesitated at the door. She didn't know how to tell Kakashi or Obito. She didn't know what would happen next, how she would get rid of the baby. Did she continue to carry him to term? Would her body know it was over and reject him? She was sure the doctor had explained the procedure. She was sure that she needed further assistance. She asked the doctor to write everything down, then she spent the walk home reading a language she swore she didn't know. Maybe it was a blessing. Maybe she wouldn't have been that great with him. But what would she do with the nursery? She could turn it into an office. They didn't need an office. She should have known something was wrong.

At home, she dropped her house keys so many times that she gave up and sat down on the front step. Kakashi wasn't there. She had an empty house and a nursery they didn't need. She still couldn't make sense of the handwriting, and the neighbor's dog wouldn't stop barking. She almost wanted to murder the thing. Instead, she managed to let herself into the home, where she went right for the living room and sat down on the couch. She'd forgotten to remove her sandals. And she recalled nothing from the walk home. She placed the paper on the coffee table and thought of what she wanted for dinner. She'd had no morning sickness. Maybe that was her sign. She'd had no cravings. Maybe that was her sign. Either way, it was over. They hadn't even decided on a name. Did naming him even matter anymore? She didn't know.

She felt for Kakashi's chakra signature, but he was in the Land of Lightning, still involved in a long-term mission meant to test her patience. She followed him for an hour, because she knew he likely couldn't feel the subtle touch of her chakra. Finding Obito was a little more difficult. He was north and west of the islands. Her mental map provided no name for the country. She reached out to him, the fluctuations in her chakra meant to serve as a silent language. It took five hours for him to knock on the door. She tried to go over her words, tried to think of multiple little ways to soften the blow. Maybe he would be glad the baby was gone. She didn't know that either.

When she saw him on her doorstep, she still didn't know what to say to him. She scolded herself for not taking the paper with her. The doctor had detailed everything from the appointment and the next steps she needed to take. She was sure the paper had everything she needed. She led him into the living room, collected the paper, and handed it to him. He looked confused, like maybe he couldn't read the handwriting. She saw the moment when he grasped the words, and she considered asking him to read them to her, because it was all just as jumbled as her thoughts. Because she should have known something was wrong. She'd just let it happen. That was just like her.

"Kana?" She looked up from the paper and he touched her shoulder, like he wanted to pat her shoulder, like the doctor had patted her hand. "Where's Kakashi?" She knew that, but the answer escaped her. He reached out with his own chakra and she watched him try to make a mental map of the world. Sometimes it was difficult. "When is he due back?" There was an answer for that too. Maybe she should have written it down. He was upset because she wasn't being helpful.

"It's fine. I just wanted you to know. I didn't want to write a letter."

"It's not fine, Kana."

"Well there's nothing I can do about it. He's already gone. I didn't even notice. That's terrible, isn't it? What did the paper say? The handwriting was terrible."

"It doesn't matter what the paper says. Look at me."

She looked up at him and he sank onto the coffee table in front of her. She removed his mask and the confusion and worry on his face let her know that she wasn't reacting properly. She'd done the same thing when she'd lost Kaisei. The dog started barking again and Obito lost his temper. He touched her cheek, then he left. The barking came to an abrupt end, punctuated by a yelp that she was sure signaled the end of the dog's life. When Obito rejoined her, he came with a leash that he dropped on the floor. She didn't ask about the dog that should have been attached to it. He claimed his seat on the coffee table and scrubbed his hands over his face. She'd been wrong to assume he would like the news. She patted his leg, trying to mimic the way the doctor comforted her. He hesitated, then he dragged her into a bruising hug that stole her breath away.

"I'm sorry," she apologized, the words all-encompassing. He pressed his lips to hers, silencing her from saying more things that didn't matter. She thought he might leave, but he didn't. He sat on the coffee table, searching for something in her eyes. His chakra washed over her, and she knew he felt exactly what she saw on the monitor. The baby was dead, and its chakra network was empty. "Are you staying?"

"Yeah. I'll stay."

"What do you want for dinner?"

"Stop. Just stop. I'll make you something. Stay here."

Unsurprisingly, she didn't listen to him. She hovered in the kitchen, feeling out of place in her own home. She thought of chores she needed to finish. She thought of getting back into training again. When he noticed her standing there, staring into space, he pulled her toward him, so she watched him cook. She didn't even know he could cook. They'd never been in a kitchen together. He made unadon from the eel she'd bought at the market. It wasn't a complex dish, but she rarely had the opportunity to eat eel. The price varied. She tasted the eel sauce before he brushed it over the eel, then they waited for the food to cook. He didn't try to talk to her, and she didn't know what to say, so they waited in a silence that followed them into the dining room. She picked at her food, while he let his bowl go cold.

"It's good," she shared, licking her lips to rid them of the sauce. He nodded, then he looked down at the food he had yet to touch. "I don't know how I'm supposed to feel." Her admission drew his attention from his bowl of cold food. She thought he might interrupt her, but he patiently waited for her to continue. "I should have terminated the pregnancy. You were right."

"It's not your fault. You know that, right? You didn't do anything wrong. It just happened. That's all."

"Then why do I feel like a failure?"

"You aren't a failure. You've never been a failure."

They left their food on the table and he followed her upstairs, where he waited for her to take a shower that lasted far too long. She hated looking at herself, knowing that her baby was still there and yet long gone. Obito eventually got tired of waiting for her, so he entered the bathroom and found her staring down at her stomach. She felt detached. That was her way of coping. It had gotten her through tough times before, and it would work for her again. Except Obito kept looking at her, his gaze willing her to feel every emotion that felt out of reach. He watched her dress herself, then he led the way to the bedroom that reminded her of the fact that she was alone. She eyed Kakashi's pillow, then she sighed through her nose. Obito wouldn't stay forever. It was only a matter of time before he pulled another vanishing act.

She didn't want to sleep, but she still climbed into bed and hid beneath the sheets and blanket, pretending as if her day hadn't gone to hell. Obito settled down behind her and embraced her, silently reminding her that right then, she wasn't alone. Outside, the sun was still high in the sky, marking the beginning of the afternoon. For a change, it was sunny. She hated it.

"We can try again, Kana." She didn't think he would ever say those words. A part of her believed he didn't really mean it, that he told her what he thought she needed to hear to keep it together. The thought of trying again made her feel even worse. "I'm willing to try again."

"This was enough."

"Alright.”

Chapter Text

January came with her twenty-first birthday, and she celebrated with too much alcohol. The izakaya they inhabited had yakitori that rivaled the best street food she'd ever tasted, and the lychee mojito she sipped paired nicely with the sauce on the chicken and scallions. Every so often, Kakashi would steal some of her food for himself, even though she jabbed him with the back of her chopsticks. She couldn't complain about the night that dragged on, not with her stomach full and her cheeks lightly flushed from her drink. Even Kakashi had some color in his cheeks, which she saw whenever he took a drink of his whiskey. He rested his right hand on her thigh, so she offered him the last skewer of her chicken, an offering for his decision to touch her. He ate the chicken in one go and dropped the empty skewer onto her plate. He looked ridiculous trying to chew the mouthful of food, so she laughed at him. He reminded her too much of a squirrel. In return, he lightly squeezed her thigh.

Obito should have been there two hours ago, but he frequently ran late, an amusing habit that followed him from his childhood. Instead of complaining about his lack of punctuality, she finished off her drink and slid the glass toward the bartender for another. Judging by the way Kakashi rubbed her thigh, he likely expected her to fold and offer to leave with him. She chose to give Obito another hour, where she ignored the way Kakashi's hand traveled up her thigh and back down again. He was bold, because no one could see the way he touched her. He wasn't a lightweight, but he'd had more than enough alcohol for the evening. She cut him off, so he stole drinks of her mojito, just like he'd stolen some of her food. He finished off her drink, and neither of them requested a refill. It was nearing midnight, so she gave up, and they left the warmth of the izakaya for the chilly January air. As they walked, he kept a hand on her lower back.

"Happy birthday," he said, as if he hadn't told her the same thing several times that day.

She nudged his side and he chuckled, silently acknowledging that she'd had enough of his birthday wishes. For a change, she'd asked for alcohol and cheap food, and Kakashi had delivered. She kissed his masked cheek and he curled his fingers against her back. Without a doubt, he would follow up with the same bold behavior he'd tried in the bar, unless Obito finally showed up and ruined the remainder of his evening. She expected nothing from Obito, because his attempts at being more involved in her life served as gifts. They'd lost the baby, but he still checked on them, as if they'd never had a falling out. She hoped to lure him into bed with them, but it would depend on his mood. Sometimes he was nothing but chaotic energy and anger. She didn't want that version of Obito showing up. She wanted the Obito who made her unadon.

Kakashi's hand dipped below her lower back, and he squeezed her ass. His hand was there and gone, the motion missed by the few passersby. He'd had too much to drink, and she'd definitely had too much to drink, but it was the first time he'd shown interest in her since September, when they'd lost the baby. He'd been awkward about the whole mess, and it had taken her months to stop hating herself. Their hands brushed and it drew his attention to her. His eyes closed for a smile and she stepped toward him to bump her hip against him. When they made it home, he unlocked the door, while she admired the patches where spring and summer would bring tulips to life. He took one of her hands and tugged her inside, where he closed them into the home and boxed her in at the door. He smelled like alcohol, and she knew she likely smelled like lychee from her drink, but she didn’t care. She tugged his mask down so she could see the devilish smirk on his face. As he moved to kiss her, they both stopped. He rested his forehead on her left shoulder and sighed, then they moved to let Obito inside. If Obito knew he’d interrupted them, he didn’t show it, his appearance anything but apologetic.

“You’re late,” Kana greeted him.

Obito looked between the two, then he hummed. She felt his chakra fluctuate, so she took one of his hands and led both men to the kitchen, where they could attempt to sober up. Unsurprisingly, her plan went to shit, because Kakashi pulled out the sake to continue where they’d left off at the izakaya. When Obito showed no signs of removing his mask, she removed it for him and pressed a kiss to his lips that only encouraged him. They separated, and he tasted the remnants of lychee on her tongue. He frowned as Kakashi offered him a cup of sake, but he didn’t refuse the drink. The alcohol did nothing for him, but Kakashi didn’t know that. The man kept Obito’s cup full, trying to get Obito to unwind and enjoy himself. He was the one to take the sake from Kakashi, to cut them off before they were drunk enough to pass out. She leaned against his side and he looped an arm around her waist, his hand against her hip. Slowly, he reached out to take Kakashi’s hand, stunning the man. Kana couldn’t contain her laughter when she saw the surprise. Without thinking, she tugged his mask down so she could see the rest of his expression. He caught her hand and pressed a kiss to her wrist, right over the scars he’d given her.

“Are you going to run off?”

Obito looked between them, then he shook his head, signaling that he meant to stay the night with them. She tried to kiss his cheek, but he turned his head and caught her lips. They didn’t talk about leaving the kitchen, about continuing their plans in the bedroom. Obito squeezed her hip and she pressed herself against his side again. Without thinking, he brought Kakashi into a kiss that brought more red to Kakashi’s cheeks. Kakashi was shy with Obito, and it amused her. He was different with her. When they parted, Kakashi rested a hand on the back of Obito’s neck and drew the man into another kiss, where they simply tasted the alcohol lingering on their tongues. She bit her tongue to keep from commenting on the display. She didn’t want to embarrass Kakashi anymore, because she hoped they would eventually move to the bedroom. Knowing how Obito felt about their time in Tanzaku-gai had her doubting they would ever leave the kitchen. They’d never talked about that night, about what it meant for them. Obito only knew how she felt.

“Happy birthday,” Obito announced as he separated from Kakashi. Kana saw the clock on the wall, acknowledging that it was three minutes past midnight. He caught her looking at the clock, so he kissed her cheek. “Happy belated birthday,” he corrected, the words making her snort. She didn’t give a damn about her birthday. But it had been a great night, and looked like it would improve, if she could convince Obito to go along with her wishes. He owed her a present, since he’d shown up empty handed. His hand on her hip felt nice, since he’d avoided touching her too, as if she were fragile, something easily broken under his hands. “I’m sorry I was late,” he finally said, drawing a feigned gasp from Kakashi. He shot the man a look, then resumed looking at her.

“No you aren’t. Where’s my present?”

“You didn’t mention wanting a present.”

“You’ll do.” He knew exactly what she meant, but he didn’t move. She considered repeating herself to regain his attention, but she decided to focus on Kakashi. She drew the man into a heated kiss that Obito clearly understood. He could cooperate, or she could take Kakashi to bed. Obito slapped her ass and she nipped Kakashi’s lower lip, tracing over it with her tongue. And he tasted nothing but lychee. Obito tugged on her hair, pulling her away from Kakashi so he could kiss her. As she pulled back, she opened her eyes and saw nothing but his sharingan. “Will you be my birthday present?” It was cheesy, and she could tell he wanted to point it out. His lips parted for the words, but she silenced him with another kiss. Kakashi thought he could slip away, but she caught his hand. “Ah ah, you too, Kakashi. I recall paying for the izakaya.”

“And I recall Obito calling Tanzaku-gai a mistake,” Kakashi said, his eyes not straying to Obito. For the first time, Kana realized that the words had hurt Kakashi too. She turned her angry gaze onto Obito and the man rubbed the back of his head. They'd never really resolved their issues. They always ignored them. It kept them going. "Is this going to be another mistake?" He wasn't drunk enough to go along with it, and Obito was sober, in comparison.

"I didn't mean it. I was just angry." Kakashi hummed, a dismissal of the words. Obito took Kakashi's other hand. "I didn't mean it," he repeated, wholly uncomfortable under Kakashi's judgmental gaze. He glanced at Kana, silently urging her to do something, but she motioned for him to go on. His half-assed excuse wasn't good enough for her, so it wasn't good enough for Kakashi. "Fine. I'm sorry," he frowned, unhappy that he had to summon the strength to actually apologize for his harsh words. "I enjoyed Tanzaku-gai. We can do it again," he offered, looking between them. Kakashi accepted the apology, but she didn't. She wanted Obito to prove that he was sorry by sleeping with them again.

"If you decide to say something like that again, I'll help Kana dispose of your unidentifiable remains." Obito made a face at the statement, showing that he didn't appreciate the words, but Kakashi squeezed his hand, so he let it go. "I'll need more alcohol," Kakashi admitted, the color in his cheeks a perfect mixture of alcohol and shyness.

Even though Obito had cut them off, Kana went to check the pantry for the whiskey she hid there. When she returned, she gave the bottle a little shake and Kakashi quickly took it from her, leaving her to wonder when he'd even moved. Obito swatted her ass, then they left the kitchen together. She led the way to the bedroom, her nerves creating butterflies in her stomach. Their fluttering wings made her wonder if she needed some of the whiskey. It was different. The last time she'd slept with Obito, he'd knocked her up, and she wasn't in the mood for a repeat. She never wanted to go through that loss again. It was a topic with a multitude of feelings that she'd buried in the very back of her mind. She wished none of it existed. Maybe that was why they hadn't touched her in months. Sex reminded her of the baby they'd lost, and she meant to remedy that by sleeping with them all over again. Sex was an outlet she desperately needed. And she didn't turn twenty-one every day.

As she opened the bedroom door, she felt hands on her hips dragging her back against a firm chest. Obito squeezed her hips hard, while Kakashi captured her lips in a rough, sloppy kiss that had her toes curling. She felt high, but Obito’s grip kept her grounded. Kakashi fumbled for the light switch, but she grabbed his arm and they entered the dark room together. She hit the bedside table as Obito rubbed against her ass; Kakashi had to turn the lamp on, giving them some light to see one another. Kana exchanged heated kisses with Kakashi while Obito unzipped her romper to expose her chest. She thought he would wait, but he slid the material down her arms until her upper body was bare. His fingers dipped into her romper and her panties and he shoved the clothing down, revealing her ass and thighs. She stopped kissing Kakashi when she realized they were both fully dressed. She turned in Obito’s arms and unzipped his cloak to reveal his shirt and pants. She shoved the cloak from his shoulders and he let it pool at his feet. Kakashi continued where Obito had left off, easily sliding her romper and panties down over her thighs, until the clothing fell to the floor.

“Why am I the only one naked?”

Kakashi slapped her ass and she gasped, tipping into Obito’s open arms. Any thoughts she had of having a normal, romantic evening went out the window when Kakashi slapped her ass again. Obito caught her moan in a kiss, taking the moment to utterly dominate her in a kiss. He pulled away before she was done kissing him so he could make out with Kakashi, so she unbuttoned and unzipped his pants and pushed his pants and boxers down in one fluid motion. She couldn’t get his shirt off with his lips connected to Kakashi’s, so she closed her right hand around his cock. Obito groaned and Kakashi slipped his tongue into the man’s mouth. She stroked him in a slow, steady rhythm that had him thrusting his hips forward, chasing more from her touch. She didn’t get to unbutton and unzip Kakashi’s pants, because Obito was already doing it for her. The kissing stopped long enough for the men to remove their shirts, then Kakashi placed a hand at the nape of Kana’s neck and pulled her into a rough kiss punctuated by Obito tightening her hand around him. She backed Kakashi up to the bed and he fell onto the mattress with a grunt. He moved toward the center of the bed, so she crawled between his legs so she could suck him off. With her ass in the air, Obito gripped her left hip and teased her with the tip of his cock.

She choked on Kakashi’s cock, pulling back to clear her throat and lick the precum from her lips and taste it on her tongue. He liked it rough, so she tightened her hand around the base of his cock and jerked him off as she took the tip into her mouth. At the same time, Obito pushed a finger into her and she spread her legs a little further so he could slip another inside of her. The whiskey worked wonders for any of their inhibitions. When Obito eased the tip of his cock into her, his motion sent her forward, forcing more of Kakashi’s cock into her mouth. Kakashi pushed her head down and she took as much of him as she could. She looked up at him and he met her eyes. She ran her tongue over the tip, then licked from the base of his cock to the tip. She would have coaxed an orgasm out of him, but she couldn’t focus on anything other than Obito inside of her. Her birthday easily surpassed their time in Tanzaku-gai. When Obito fucked her too hard, she moaned around Kakashi’s cock. Kakashi tangled his fingers in her hair and she choked for a second time. She pulled away to focus on touching herself, but Kakashi closed her hand around him. She huffed, but she still jerked him off. Kakashi released his hold on her hair and fell back onto the bed, a moan from him encouraging her to keep going. Obito grabbed her hair and yanked her head back, baring her throat. The pain from him pulling on her hair was nice, but she liked it even more when he slapped her ass.

“The best present,” she blurted out between thrusts. She lightly squeezed Kakashi and he thrust his hips up to meet her, forcing her to move her hand. One hand tightened around the sheets, her fingers aching as she dug them into the fabric. She had to hold onto something, because she felt half gone with pleasure. Obito pulled out before he came and she let out a pitiful noise at the loss of him inside of her. “I want to ride you,” she said, slowly uncurling her aching fingers. She looked back at Obito and caught him stroking himself.

“Finish with Kakashi.”

She muttered something under her breath and Obito slapped her ass hard. Kakashi turned her over so she was on her back, looking up at him. He hesitated, so she rested her hand on his left cheek and drew him into a soft kiss that contrasted sharply with how they’d treated her. He tried to say something about a condom, so she closed her eyes and exhaled through her nose. She closed her legs around him and he eased into her anyway. She would handle it all later. As soon as he found the spot just inside of her, he pulled out and thrust in, repeatedly hitting that spot. He brought one of her legs up, his hand closed around her thigh, while his other hand went to her throat. Her moans were choked, sweet oxygen abruptly cut off, over and over again. Obito moved beside them and he pressed down on her clit, slowly moving his fingers around, the pace so different from Kakashi’s hard thrusts. She couldn’t even tell them that she was close. Kakashi came before her, but he fucked her until she hit her climax, her walls immediately tightening around him. It was silent after they’d climaxed, where the room was filled with nothing but heavy breathing. She moaned as he pulled out of her. Her neck ached from his grip, and she had a spot on her thigh that would likely end up bruised. Any rest she thought she would get was lost when Obito nudged her legs.

“Why didn’t you tell me you liked choking so much?” Obito lay down on the bed and she straddled him. He touched her sensitive clit and she moved her hips in a small circle to add more pressure. She loved every moment with Obito. The choking had never mattered with him. It was something for Kakashi.

“I like being choked,” she informed him, earning an unimpressed look from him. She guided his cock inside of her and settled down on top of him, then he grabbed her hips and thrust upwards, burying himself inside of her. He preferred deep thrusts, but he always teased her entrance for her. He did it then. Even though she was panting, Kakashi stole kisses from her, taking her breath away.

She moaned Obito’s name on repeat. Anything else she said was unintelligible. Kakashi squeezed her breasts and pinched her nipples and it was so close to overstimulation that she could have begged him to just stop. The closer she got to another orgasm, the more she appreciated being touched everywhere. She came before Obito, so he fucked her through an orgasm. He enjoyed the tightness around him, and every further movement sent more waves of pleasure through her. It felt so good that she wondered if it would drag on forever. He wanted to pull out, and she knew it, so she closed her hands around his forearms and stopped him from trying to move her. She threw her head back, baring her throat for Kakashi to kiss, and came again. Seconds later, Obito came, and she moaned through his last thrusts until her voice faded off. Kakashi dragged her into a kiss and she slowly lifted her hips for Obito to pull out. She didn’t know what to say to them, so she groaned and lay next to Obito, one leg thrown over his, her body half on top of Kakashi. The post-orgasmic bliss drove every thought away. Her whole body still felt alive with the remnants of pleasure.

“I’m fucking tired,” she admitted, breaking the silence. Kakashi chuckled, while Obito grunted, clearly in agreement. When it became clear that she and Obito weren’t moving, Kakashi nudged her aside and she curled up against Obito. She was warm when Kakashi held her from behind. She thought that Obito might have fallen asleep, but his eyes were open and glued to the ceiling. One arm behind his head, he hummed, then he looked over at her. “You’re thinking too hard. Something’s definitely burning.”

“That's rude, Kana." His tone was disapproving, but they both knew he didn't really care. He ran his hand over her forearm, where it rested over his stomach. He didn't immediately answer, which let her know that it was something serious, something he'd likely thought about for a while. She no longer felt the butterflies, and the feeling of bliss that had enveloped her slowly fell away. Kakashi lightly patted her bare thigh, a reminder that he was there, that he had her. "Why don’t you come back?”

She thought about moving, but she knew she would want to shower and change, and the thought itself was exhausting. She remembered how it felt to cry over him. She remembered the overwhelming feeling of loneliness that had persisted through her days. Kakashi had tried his best to pick up the pieces and put her back together again. She couldn't ask him to do it a second time, when Obito inevitably blew out of their lives again. Obito didn't know how to stop, how to stay, how to love, how to live. He existed. That was the problem. She didn't know if she had the strength in her to return to the mess that was Akatsuki. She had a home, though it wasn't perfect, and she still hated everything about the island nation. In the spring, she would have pink tulips. In the summertime, she would have honeysuckle. She had something. But he knew just how to draw her back in, like a moth to a flame. No one had warned her of the burns.

"Kana?"

He brushed stray strands of hair from her face and she looked at him again. She thought that her mind would jump to the smart conclusion and she would immediately turn him down, but she felt lost. She hated feeling that way. It made her defensive and moody. She just wanted him to fuck her again and drop the subject altogether. He waited on an answer she didn't have. Sighing, she sat up between them and brought her knees toward her chest, her feet crossed at the ankles. Kakashi sat up with her, while Obito simply leaned back on his elbows. They'd been separated for almost a year. Kirigakure gave her a home, even if it never felt quite right, even if they took the trash missions that were too dangerous for the shinobi forces. She didn't want that lifestyle for Kakashi or herself. But Obito was instability embodied. And the man finally knew how she felt about Tsuki no Me. Right then, he didn't need her, not anymore. He'd progressed with his chakra sensing.

"Kakashi?" She turned her head in his direction and searched for an answer on his face. He looked just as unsure with the offer. Kirigakure gave them a home, but there was no freedom. "What do you want to do?" She asked him, because she knew exactly what she wanted. She wanted Obito, even after his cruel and dismissive words, even after his disappearing act, even after the silence that had persisted for months. Rejoining Akatsuki didn't mean that she would have Obito in the way she wanted him. He was always out of reach.

"We can't stay here forever, and we hardly see each other with the constant missions. It makes you cranky."

"Thank you, Kakashi. I know I'm cranky. Do you want to go back to this idiot's group and kick start another large-scale war for the sake of world peace?"

"You're going to start a war for peace? Obito."

"They would start it," Obito defended, frowning at Kakashi's disappointed tone and judgmental gaze. Kana sighed and ran a hand through her messy hair. Kakashi hadn't answered her. He was aware that he hadn't answered her. They were both lost. "If you don't want to come back, just say so. You won't be hurting my feelings." She didn't believe him, so she pressed her lips together and turned her attention back to Kakashi, silently hoping he would have figured out their future plans. She really couldn't trust her own judgment when it came to Obito.

"Kakashi?" She tried again, but he was just as unhelpful as the first time. Her hopeful look was ruined with the sudden appearance of her scowl. "Will you stop disappearing for months at a time?" Obito took too long to answer, but he eventually nodded. She didn't believe him. "Just," she stopped for a frustrated sigh that did nothing for the irritability brought on by feeling cornered, "you really fucking know how to ruin a good evening."

"You want to come back."

"You matter. Your stupid plans don't."

"They aren't really my plans."

At first, she didn't understand, then she doubted her hearing, because the words had her stomach in knots. Her eyes dropped from his face to his chest, right where that dark chakra resided. Deep. Stagnant. She knew it was a seal, and what kind of seal paired with those foreboding words? She focused her chakra on him, following along the edge of his chakra network, her actions harmless, but necessary. When she reached his heart, the seal pulsed and she cut off her sensing, feeling half sick at the way it reacted to the experimental touch. He knew she'd felt it. It was the beginning of a conversation they shouldn't have in their current states. She uncrossed her ankles and slid to the end of the bed, where she quickly stood. Something was very wrong. Kakashi watched her in confusion, knowing she'd sensed something, unable to feel the strength of the seal. She had the worst thoughts and the scariest questions.

"I'm going to shower."

Chapter Text

"Tsuki no Me isn't your plan?"

"Not exactly."

The morning offered no clarity. His words still inspired a feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach. He still held her to his chest, his heartbeat steady against her hand. She'd overlooked the seal too many times, considered it as another part comprising him. Beside them, Kakashi slept through the early hours, giving them time to talk. The alcohol and the previous night had taken a toll on him, so Kana let him sleep it off, even though he liked to keep a strict schedule. Obito’s right hand slipped beneath the back of her shirt and she felt him rub her back, tracing the curve of her spine. The subject was a serious one, but she took the small comfort his touch provided.

"Madara saved me."

She didn't pull back to see his face. With the words, his chest vibrated against her, the feel of it as calming as his touch. No matter what, he was still Obito. But hearing that her ancestor had defied death and turned a young boy into the mess of a man before her left her murderous. After the impure reincarnation jutsu she'd seen, she believed it was possible. She chose to believe him. He believed that Madara had saved him. She didn't know what to say to him, what words she should have summoned to let him know that it wasn't saving him if it led to destroying him. She was still glad she could feel his heartbeat, a sign that despite it all, he still lived.

"Obito, did he do this to you?" She touched the right side of his chest and he hummed. She trailed her hand down his arm until she couldn't anymore, then she went still. "It's his plan?" Again, he hummed, and she couldn't resist frowning, because his responses were vague noises that seemed more like minor dismissals. "You can stop."

"I can't. I have to do this. The shinobi system-." She cut him off by placing a hand over his mouth. He kissed her palm, so she slowly moved her hand. She didn't need him preaching to her; she didn't want him preaching to her. "You're ruining everything. I didn't plan for any of this to happen. You shouldn't matter at all. You should be expendable." She understood the frustration in his tone. She'd reached him, even if she hadn't broken through. She'd introduced doubt. She made him question himself and plans shown to him over a decade ago.

"Obito, you deserve to be happy."

"The successful completion of Tsuki no Me means happiness for everyone involved."

"You don't have to be the world's savior. You don't have to do any of this. You said it's not your plan. So what do you want, Obito? What is your plan?"

"I don't know." His frustration had bled away, replaced by uncertainty and confusion. Selfishly, she longed for him to want something more than another war. She leaned up so she could kiss him and his hand dipped below her back to squeeze her ass. "We could move to Yukigakure," he suggested, dreaming of a future that would never come to fruition. She kissed him again and he made a noise in his throat that only encouraged her to continue kissing him, every meeting of their lips further steps toward that imaginary future. "You smell good," he complimented her between kisses. She nudged him onto his back and moved the covers down toward her hips so she could straddle his legs.

"Tell me what our lives would be like there."

She took his cock in her right hand and slowly stroked it in time with his tale of hot cocoa and warm fires that would remind her of nothing but his chakra signature. He made up a whole story, from the moment they introduced Kakashi to their supposedly famous snow activities to the way they huddled around a fire for warmth. When he was hard in her hand, she pushed her panties to the side and guided him inside of her. It was less about the pleasure and more about being close to him. He would disappear again. She would have nothing but plans borrowed from Madara and the promise of death. As he squeezed her breasts, she rested her hands over his and squeezed harder, showing him how she wanted him to touch her. She came first, her slow actions drawing out the inevitable high that would drive them mad. Kakashi woke up as Obito finished inside of her, and he sighed at the sight of them, as if he'd expected nothing less. Kana kissed Kakashi as a good morning to him, then Obito kissed him.

"You had a lot to drink, so we let you sleep it off," Kana explained, returning to her spot between them. He ran a hand over his face, then he turned to catch a glimpse of the clock. She patted his chest and his attention returned to them. "Obito volunteered to cook us food," she lied, earning a groan from the man. Kakashi's eyes closed as he smiled and she couldn't help but kiss him again.

"I can't stay long. I'm supposed to be looking into a cult in the Land of Hot Water," Obito supplied, slowly sitting up. The blanket pooled on his lap and he ran a hand through his messy hair. He looked thoroughly worn out. "Unless you're interested in it." It was a subtle way to remind them that his question about their return hadn't been answered. Kana looked at Kakashi, a silent conversation taking place between them. Kakashi glanced at Obito, clearly thinking something, then he spoke to Kana.

"We won't be able to stay here."

"I know." Kakashi relented, a nod signaling his final response to her unspoken question. She hesitated, because she didn't want them going through the same mess again. Her lower lip between her teeth, she contemplated what it meant to say goodbye to the home they'd shared for almost a year. "We won't be going through this again, Obito. Don't fuck us over. You will make time for us. The first time you fuck off, I'm murdering everyone in your organization and feeding their remains to the alligators in the Land of Rivers."

"I don't think that's possible," Obito said, doubting her threat and her ability to follow through with it.

"Try me," she smiled, her eyes turning crimson in the shadows of the room. Instead of arguing, Obito accepted her response and let it go. "What's for breakfast?" She chose to change the subject. At her words, Obito pulled the pillow from beneath his head and pressed it over his face. She tried wrestling the pillow away from him, but Kakashi stood and dragged her away by the waist. "Shit head," she huffed, fixing her long shirt so it covered her backside. Kakashi lightly tapped her ass, so she leaned in and stole a kiss. "Enough of this. I'm hungry. I'm not cooking. I don't want bland food or burnt remains."

"Let's go, Obito. Rise and shine." Kakashi ripped the pillow from over the man's head and smiled down at him. Obito checked the clock on the bedside table, then he sighed and got to his feet. "Take a shower. I'll start breakfast."

Kana contemplated a shower, since she'd slept with Obito again. After hesitating, she took one of Obito’s hands and pulled him toward the side of the bed. Kakashi left them alone, so Obito stopped dragging his feet and followed her to the attached bathroom. She chose to wash him in the shower, just so she could touch him again; even though he rolled his eyes, he smiled at her obvious need to slide her hands over his body. When they finished in the shower, they changed into clean clothes and Obito put his cloak back on. Kakashi had breakfast waiting for them.

"Natto?" Kana wrinkled her nose at the food in front of Kakashi. He looked down at it and then took another bite. Obito looked at his bowl of oatmeal and the blueberries forming a smiley face on top, then he snorted. "It's happy to see you," Kana teased him, taking a seat beside Kakashi. She had perfectly made omelets in front of her, so she drowned them in ketchup. Kakashi never understood her preference for ketchup on eggs.

"It's good, but I already knew you could cook, considering the number of times you cooked for me when we were kids," Obito said, stirring his blueberries into the oatmeal. Kakashi stole a piece of toast from Obito’s plate and the man pulled his plate out of reach. "Sometimes it was all I ate in a day."

"Why didn't you say something? I would have complained, belittled you, and forced you into a fist fight that you would have lost, but I would have cooked for you," Kakashi frowned, earning a shrug from Obito. Kana had always thought he'd had someone looking after him, but his experiences likely resembled Naruto's experiences. The village looked down on orphans. "Kana mentioned you don't need to eat," Kakashi trailed off.

"I don't. I can survive without food. I'm eating this because you made it, and it tastes good." Obito lightly tapped his chopsticks on the rim of his bowl, distracted by his thoughts. "It's convenient, but I feel like less of a human being. I already know I'm not aesthetically pleasing. At least my dick still works, I guess." Kana pressed her lips together to keep from laughing at his last words, while Kakashi tried to think of some way to reassure him.

"It works just fine," Kana said, touching one of his hands. He rolled his eyes and shook her hand off, knowing that she was teasing him for his statement. Kakashi cleared his throat, so Obito looked over at him.

"I wouldn't make out with you if I didn't find you attractive, and I'm sure Kana feels the same way. You aren't less than. You're more than enough. Even though you made me slave over a hot stove for you."

"You just belong in the kitchen." Kana patted his leg and he sighed at her, knowing she meant to tease him too. Obito took another bite of oatmeal, then Kana felt an abnormal chakra signature creeping at the edge of her senses, hovering near the home. Obito looked down at the ground, then he picked up the mask he'd brought with him and put it on. "You're leaving again," she frowned, her good mood receding. She knew it was Zetsu. She didn't need to ask.

"Here." Obito handed over a mission scroll to Kakashi, then he got to his feet, leaving the remains of his oatmeal on the low table. "I'm not fucking off, before you even start, Kana. There are some things I'd rather he didn't know. This is one of them."

Kakashi looked down at the scroll in his hand, then he passed it to Kana. Obito left before they were able to tell him goodbye, then Zetsu began a slow retreat. Kana didn't want Zetsu anywhere near Kakashi, so she couldn't complain, but a decent goodbye would have been nice. She shoved a piece of egg into her mouth and then stole the piece of toast Kakashi had taken from Obito. Another year gone.

Chapter Text

Kana stared down at the cloak in her hands and recalled the last time she'd worn it. The memory allowed emotions to resurface, but she stomped them down, burying them for a time in the future that would never arrive. Kakashi zipped up his own cloak and checked over his belongings again, taking stock of the items they'd recently purchased for their mission. She didn't want to leave the home, even though she desperately wanted to leave the village. It stood for stability. It stood for a slice of normalcy in their chaotic lives. As she slid her arms in the sleeves of the cloak, she surveyed their room. They'd never added personal touches, like photos or trinkets brought back from foreign lands. The bare walls told her she never really belonged there, even if it felt that way sometimes. Being a member of the lower caste had ruined any chances they'd had for growth. And it was fine, because it was over. Even though Kakashi promised her they would return, she knew he was lying. Kirigakure would be behind them. They had Akatsuki again. That had to be enough. Obito had to be enough.

"Let's just get the fuck out of here," she sighed, brushing some of her hair behind her right ear. Kakashi turned the lights out, one by one, until they stood in the entryway. He took a few moments to memorize the layout, to pick up tiny details missed in their day-to-day life. Kana didn't look back. Outside, she slid her gloves on and flexed her fingers. "Maybe next time we won't end up in this shithole village."

"Mm, maybe. We could settle down in the Land of Silence," he said, adopting a thoughtful tone. She snorted and shoved him into a thorn bush, but he substituted himself with a log, which she easily cut in half. He appeared at her back, so she elbowed him in the gut. "I could take you somewhere," he offered, an end to their tiny game. She sheathed her wakizashi and they resumed walking. "There's a village called Shinkiro in the Land of Wind. It's a vacation destination."

"It sounds like you're planning a date."

"Maybe I am."

"Not interested."

"The women in Icha Icha appreciate attempts at romance." He shrugged his shoulders, as if he expected her to be more like the women Jiraiya wrote about. The man was disgusting, despite not looking half bad. Kana hummed in thought. "What if I bought you flowers?" She arched a brow at him, but she didn't find any humor in his eyes. He was genuinely curious. No one had ever bought her flowers. Flowers died.

"I'd rather beat the shit out of you in a spar." He sighed at her words, as if he'd actually expected something different from her. After a moment of toying with her gloves, she reconsidered the idea of a date, or at least some flowers. Romance always seemed awkward to her. "Do you want to take me on a date now? Is that it?" He pretended to tap his chin, so she tried to trip him. He hopped right over her foot, so she huffed. "Just ask me already."

"This mission could be part of our date."

"It's the cannibal mission."

"He put it off this long?"

"He can be a lazy piece of shit."

"You're so sweet with us. What do you think of me, hm?" He smiled at her, his eyes closed, reminding her of crescent moons. She rolled her eyes and looked away, knowing he was teasing her. "I think you're funny," he said, as if he expected her to take part in some trade of compliments. He was still teasing her, so she pretended to ignore him. She'd heard the words before. They brought up bad memories.

"I think you're annoying," she lied, turning to show him the same smile he'd shown her. He made a noise of amusement and dropped the subject. "I enjoy spending time with you. It's different. It's not about sex, even though it started out that way. You're amusing, at times, like right now. It's a nice distraction." She chose to add some honesty into the conversation and received a small hum of acknowledgement. She elbowed him in the side and he grunted, mumbling about her bony elbows. "I also like your face."

"I like your face too." He patted her back, so she nudged her hip against his. They had three hours to hit the coast and a boat ride that would have her heaving for the length of the journey, but he made the day into a good one. She would never tell him that though. It would go to his head. "Tell me more about the cannibals."

The constant rocking motion had her curling her fingers against the floor, as if she could grip it and stop her world from moving. She groaned for the third time in the last few moments and dry heaved into the toilet. Beside her, Kakashi kept his eyes turned away, though he held her hair back. The whole mission deserved to burn in hell, in her opinion. When she could finally breathe, she stopped and spat in the toilet, then she mumbled about water. Kakashi handed her a bottle he'd retrieved from their belongings and she sipped it, knowing it would end up in the toilet with the rest of the water she'd thrown up. He released her hair, though he began rubbing her back. In his free hand, she saw he had Jiraiya's light porn, and he was almost lost in the pages. The boat tipped to one side and she tried gripping the floor again, even though her nails scratched at it. She couldn't imagine days spent at sea. She leaned her head on Kakashi’s shoulder and he closed the book to pay attention to her.

"Life is hell," she complained, her voice hoarse. He chuckled, then he ran a hand over her hair. She was tired and hungry, but she couldn't tear herself away from the toilet. Her eyes were wet with tears brought on by her misery. She had no control over the way her eyes watered. She hated that more than the vomiting. "Read me some of that." His silence had her pulling back to see his face, and she smiled when she saw him blushing. She hadn't thought the book was too racy. "You're blushing. Is it really that bad? Just read a little. I need to focus on something." He brought the book up to hide his face and she couldn't contain her laughter. "Please?" He lowered the book enough so she could see his eye, then he raised it again.

"'He grasped her ass and pulled her to his chest, where his smoldering eyes had her wrapping her arms around him.'" Kakashi stopped to clear his throat. He didn't lower the book, so he missed the grin on her face. "They make love under the moonlight. The end." He tried to move the book, but she shoved it toward his face. His shoulders slumped, face embarrassingly red, he flipped back to the page. "'I love you.'"

Kana blinked, waiting for something more. When she checked the page, she discovered no hidden sex scenes. She huffed and flipped through the book until she found a raunchy scene, then she handed the book back to him. "Read." She made the word into a command and he frowned at her. He snapped the book closed and she reopened it. "Come on, Kakashi. I'll burn the shyness out of you. I'll let you lead the mission? Fine. You can take me to Shinkiro. Let's go. Read."

"'Her breasts were full and encompassed his aching cock.' Really, Kana? This scene?" Kakashi gave her a judgmental look and she flicked the cover. He raised the book to hide his face again. "'Every upward and downward motion made him feel as if he were fucking the best-.' No."

"Yes. Say it."

"I can take you wherever I want for the date. You can't change your mind. If you break the agreement, I'll tell Obito you're dying again and you can fight it out with him."

"Tch. Fine."

"'Every upward and downward motion made him feel as if he were fucking the best-.'" He couldn't hide his face any more than he already had, but he still tried. She leaned against him and rested her head on his shoulder again. She thought she heard him muttering, but he covered the words with a sigh. "'Every upward and downward motion made him feel as if he were fucking the best pussy of his life.'" He'd rushed through the sentence and snapped the book closed, then he tapped it against her head.

"You're such a loser," she laughed, pulling away when he tried to swat her with the book. He didn't appreciate the insult, so he turned his face away from her. "I like that scene. I don't have the boobs for it. It's a shame," she thought aloud. He smacked the back of her head with the book, so she dropped the subject and went back to leaning against him. "I was just fucking with you. You don't have to pout. Alright. I'm sorry."

The boat tipped too far to one side and her stomach rolled along with it. She quickly turned away and emptied her stomach into the toilet. Kakashi pulled her hair back with one hand and read the book he held in his free hand. Her tears reappeared as she tried to find a break for a few breaths. Eventually, he left her to get some ginger tea to help with her stomach. She spent the remainder of their journey drinking cup after cup, hoping it would solve her problem. Once on dry land, she sighed in relief, and Kakashi paid the fare for their crossing. She told herself she'd never cross the sea again, but she knew it was a lie. Book tucked into the pouch at his hip, Kakashi accepted the mission scroll she finally handed over, allowing him to scan the contents and save her the trouble of explaining the mission details. When he was done, he tucked the mission scroll away and they both tried to imagine the cannibals in the Land of Hot Water. The rumor was that they were able to eat their victims and adopt their personalities and appearance, like wearing a mask. They became so similar that their chakra signatures matched. She didn't think it was possible, but she looked forward to seeing them in action.

The villages they passed had natural hot springs that smelled of sulfur, each one attracting vacationers looking for a relaxing soak. Each village had devolved into a tourist trap. Kana hoped that Shinkiro would be different, but Kakashi didn't know the first thing about planning a date, unless he ripped off an idea from Jiraiya's book. That worried her. She was drawn from her thoughts by the approach of Zetsu's chakra, how it spread out below ground and extended out. He shouldn't have been in the Land of Hot Water. Kana linked arms with Kakashi, confusing the man. When she dragged him into a faster walk, he knew something was wrong. The chakra seeping from the ground became almost tangible and he finally felt it, though it had only been meant for her. Kakashi had yet to meet Zetsu. She didn't know the full story behind Zetsu, and she cursed herself for getting so wrapped up in Obito and Kakashi that the subject had slipped her mind. She needed to get rid of Zetsu, and she had a feeling that Kakashi would help her.

"It's the same chakra you felt in Kirigakure, isn't it? We're being followed."

"I don't want him near you."

"I made chunin at six." It was a quick reminder that he was more than capable of taking care of himself, but the look she shot at him let him know that he needed more information than that for her to let go of his arm and stop half dragging him down the road. "Kana, I was an ANBU captain." She ignored him and he planted his feet, preventing her from dragging him along. "I know you want to protect me, but I'm capable of looking after myself. Let's see what he wants." After hesitating, she dropped her hold on his arm and stood beside him, patiently waiting for Zetsu to emerge.

Zetsu was slow to rise from the ground, but when he did, he focused solely on Kakashi. Kakashi smiled and waved at him, but Zetsu didn't wave back. "If it isn't stupid Kakashi. He never mentioned you being here," the white half spoke, earning a confused look from Kana. Kakashi recognized Obito’s old nickname for him, and he knew Zetsu had been with Obito since the beginning. "You don't look injured, Kana. Maybe I should injure you," the black half spoke, clearly considering the idea.

"I'd like to see you try," Kakashi replied, shrugging his shoulders at the words. He was dismissive because he didn't think any of the creature's attempts would work. Zetsu laughed, then split into two. Black Zetsu slid across the ground, but a foot slammed down on it and a seal spread across the dirt. "Jiraiya-sama." Kakashi blinked at the man, clearly wondering what the sannin was doing on the outskirts of Yugakure. He glanced at Kana, but her eyes remained on Black Zetsu until it disappeared under ground. His hand went toward his tanto, but Jiraiya didn't seem interested in a fight.

"Kid, I don't want to know how you got mixed up with that. You've made a lot of wrong choices lately." Jiraiya frowned at the dirt, then he moved his foot and the seal flickered and disappeared. He looked at Kakashi, then his eyes strayed to Kana. "Ah, that makes sense. Hello again, Kana. Looking as beautiful as always." His usual lecherous grin was absent, so she knew it was a front. He hadn't attacked them because he wasn't after them. Kana nudged Kakashi’s hand away from the tanto.

"We all know you're just here to spy on the bathhouses. We're not after you. Nothing on our agenda pertains to Konoha. We won't have a problem unless you make a problem." Jiraiya rubbed his chin, while she waited for him to decide if he wanted to get into a fight in the middle of the street. He shrugged his shoulders, dismissing the idea. "Let's go," Kana decided, the words meant for Kakashi.

"You know about Zetsu." Kakashi didn't move, so Kana crossed her arms over her chest and waited for him to finish his discussion. Jiraiya rubbed his ear, as if he'd heard something slightly interesting, but wasn't entirely sure.

"I know about a lot of things."

"What do you want in exchange for information?"

"Akatsuki made contact with a jinchuriki in the Land of Earth. Why?"

"Kakashi," Kana hissed, already shutting down talks. He looked confused, as if he could work through it on his own, then he turned his full attention to her. She didn't know what to say to them, not when telling the truth meant ruining everything for Obito, not when telling the truth meant hurting Kakashi. "Akatsuki made contact with Han in the Land of Earth by chance and made a statement to Onoki, and to the great nations as a whole."

"Oh? What is that statement?" Jiraiya didn't believe her, but it didn't matter. She wanted to protect Kakashi from the truth. "Is this going to be a running theme? Are you going to challenge the great nations?"

"Why doesn't your shriveled-up, old sensei graciously host a Kage Summit and find out? Let's fucking go, Kakashi." Kakashi knew about the war, and Jiraiya clearly thought it was about another war and not the beginning of a major move on the jinchuriki. Her response encouraged him to find answers in a way that he couldn't. Iwagakure and Kumogakure really didn't play well with others. Kakashi waved to Jiraiya, then Kana walked away, leaving Kakashi to catch up.

"Han abandoned Iwagakure years ago."

"Did he?"

"Akatsuki didn't need to make contact with Han." Kana kept her facial expression neutral, even though she wanted to turn around and beat Jiraiya into the ground. She'd misled Jiraiya, but she often forgot about Kakashi’s intelligence. Calling him stupid didn't make him stupid. "Kana, why did Akatsuki make contact with Han?"

"Let it go, Kakashi," she commanded, turning her head toward him so he could see her hard gaze. He frowned at her, because he never appreciated being bossed around with that particular tone. He was a leader, at heart. Kakashi stepped in front of her and grabbed her shoulders, his grip bruising. "Han was a mistake. That's all." He didn't let go of her, so she didn't look away. She knew how to tell when someone was lying. He was looking for signs.

"Don't lie to me. We both know Akatsuki members are crazy enough to fight a kage to make a statement. I know about the retrieval of the forbidden scroll."

"We're never going to finish this fucking mission. It was Itachi's mission. Kisame and I assisted. Han was the target, but we weren't prepared to take him down. We failed. The mission was a mistake. That's it."

"What am I involved in?"

"Let it go, Kakashi."

Chapter Text

She picked at the food in her takeout container, flinging pieces of broccoli and peas to one side so she could get mouthfuls of nothing but rice and beef. Kakashi hadn't spoken to her in four hours, and the initial search for clues had come up empty. She couldn't put up with the heavy silence, and he knew that; he knew it was only a matter of time before she lost her temper and they ended up in an embarrassing display. She offered her broccoli to Kakashi, but he hummed and turned away from her, content to finish off the remainder of his own meal. The hotel room they shared had one bed, but she had a feeling his icy personality would stretch through the night, where he would refuse to touch her. She experienced enough of the silent treatment to know how the evening would go, and she hated it. She stabbed her chopsticks into her container and placed it aside, then she snapped her fingers in front of Kakashi's face. He thought playing magic tricks with his mask would irritate her more, and he was right. She couldn't help but think Obito would have been a better partner.

"That's it. Your silent treatment is over. I want you to hold me tonight, so what do you want from me? I clearly have to bribe you to get basic signs of affection from you now. And don't you act shocked because you know exactly what you're doing, Hatake."

"You told me to 'let it go' so I let it go."

"Whatever you wanted from Jiraiya, you didn't get. You're being pissy because he got into your head."

"Alright. Obito used to call me stupid when we were kids. Bakashi or baka Kakashi. Exactly what Zetsu called me. My guess is that he's been with Obito since Obito was young. I'm wondering if he's influenced Obito," Kakashi shared, surprising her. She lost the remainder of her anger when he shared the helpful information. It helped in her case for getting rid of Zetsu. If they could root out the negativity, maybe they could save Obito from himself. "Unlike you, I didn't have to lie." Kakashi popped a cooked pepper into his mouth and she frowned at him.

"I'm not explaining the mission of this organization to you. That's Obito’s job," she declared, downing the rest of her wine. The ryokan insisted on giving them limitless alcohol, and she suddenly found that wonderful. Kakashi watched her pour another glass before he spoke. His wine remained untouched.

"Pleasing him is your job." He didn't mean it in the way that Obito had meant it. He didn't mean to imply she was a slut. Still, the words hurt and made her instantly defensive, which she hid behind a long drink of wine. "Why don't you try putting me first, for a change?" He picked at her insecurities by pointing out the fear that he felt less important, that he lacked the same kind of love she showed Obito. She didn't have enough wine in the world to unpack that box. "What am I involved in, Kana? I would go to war for you, and you know what we both went through in the last one. Be honest with me."

"It wasn't a mistake," she admitted, her voice low. She moved her glass in small circles, as if she truly meant to bring out something in the wine. "Our mission was to confront Han. I tracked him in the Land of Earth. He defied our expectations. He's in perfect harmony with his tailed beast, so genjutsu is useless. Itachi would trap Han and the tailed beast chakra would fluctuate, ruining it. We were forced to retreat." She hadn't been entirely honest. She couldn't even meet his eyes. He sighed through his nose and moved to stand, but she caught his right hand, stopping him. "Obito is aware that we need to have this discussion. He knows you need to be aware of the plan behind world peace. I don't want to hurt you. Deep down, he doesn't want to hurt you."

"He isn't here, Kana. You are."

"We're gathering the tailed beasts for Obito to become the jinchuriki of the ten tails."

"Do you have any idea how insane you sound?" She gripped her wine glass and turned her head away. He remained seated, though he shook off her hand. She had nothing to distract herself, except for the wine she kept drinking. She barely tasted it anymore. Her silence only gave him time to think. He knew what happened when a jinchuriki lost their tailed beast. "You intend to take the nine tails. You want to kill Naruto." She opened her mouth to try and embellish the story, but he cut her off by holding up a hand. "You know how I feel about him. You gave him back to me, in some way. Am I just supposed to let you kill him?"

"Why are you here, Kakashi? Why did you join Akatsuki? Is it because you want to see peace or is it because you love us? In my opinion, the world can get bent." He frowned, his expression perfectly matching the way he pushed away from the table and got to his feet. She expected him to go to bed, to hide in the bathroom, to do something other than walk out the door. He left so suddenly that she was speechless. Maybe she shouldn't have told him, but it was too late. With the option to follow him or wait for his return, she chose to wait. He needed space.

He never came back, so she grabbed the remainder of the wine and went in search of him. It was three in the morning when she found him. He'd located the war memorial in the center of Yugakure. The memorial was a fountain with the village's one and only kage committing seppuku in the center. The whole stone image was morbid, with water rushing from the man's injured stomach, but she understood that the man had taken his own life in the first war as a sign for continued peace. She wondered what the hidden village would have been like if the man had pledged to fight until the end. The disarmament never would have happened. The village wouldn't be a tourist haven. She looked from the statue in the center of the fountain to the man seated on the edge. A small pug was curled up in his lap, clearly feigning sleep; she was sure Pakkun had noticed her, even though he remained still. Kakashi looked thoroughly exhausted, and she knew he'd jogged for hours, running to clear his mind. She sat down beside him and rested one of her hands on the cool stone. She inched her left hand toward Kakashi's right hand, and he let her touch him.

"Were you ever going to tell me?"

"Yes."

"I should just let you kill him?"

"You don't even know him. To you, he's a living reminder of how you felt about your sensei and his wife. Naruto isn't Minato or Kushina." She tried to be gentle with her tone and her approach, but he moved his hand from under hers, so she knew she'd failed. Maybe she just didn't understand. Maybe she was lacking a part of herself she'd struggled with when she knew about her own baby. "We've killed plenty of children. He shouldn't be different. It should be just another mission." The child she lost should have been just another death, something meaningless. She drank wine to muddle her thoughts, then she offered the bottle to him. He surprised her by accepting it.

"You're right. I don't know him, and he isn't his mother or his father." He didn't sound as if the words had helped him cope. Her approach just wasn't good enough for him. He still cared about a stranger. "Naruto deserves a full life. I'm not going to let you take that from him, even if it means sacrificing my life in a fight to save him." He handed the bottle back to her and she gave it a little shake, showing them they had enough left to ride out the remainder of the conversation. Alcohol couldn't fix the ache in her chest when he stated his plan to fight for Naruto's life. Would she kill Kakashi to make Tsuki no Me successful? She wanted to say no.

"You're so fucking stupid," she muttered, drinking more of the wine. She didn't pass the bottle on. "His life is miserable. You saw his apartment. You saw his cabinets. You saw the cobwebs. He's being neglected and likely abused by the damn villagers. What kind of a life is that? We'd probably be doing the kid a favor." She tried touching him and he elbowed her so hard that she fell backwards into the fountain. She heard the bottle shatter on the ground, but she focused on cradling her stomach. He looked angry, and his chakra buzzed, reminding her of bright, fluorescent lighting. She thought he might hit her again, so she flinched when he moved.

"I'm not Obito." He looked unhappy that he had to remind her of the fact. He waited for her to crawl her way out of the fountain, then he dismissed Pakkun. They were alone. "There are many things I'm willing to do for Obito, but killing Naruto isn't one of them. He wouldn't ask you to do something like that."

"You think I killed my family because I finally had enough of them? My parents, my brother, my sister-in-law, and her baby are dead. He asked that of me. I killed them to protect you. Your life mattered to me. Your future mattered to me. I would kill them a thousand times over if I had to."

"Would you kill me if Obito told you to?"

"He'd never ask me to do that. He can't even do that." Kakashi stood and she watched him look toward the village exit, as if he planned on walking out of her life. He stepped over the broken remains of the bottle and walked toward the ryokan. "Kakashi. Kakashi, wait-." He stopped and she ran right into his back. He glanced over his shoulder at her, so she circled around to stand before him. "Do you want Naruto? I'll go get him. Just, just tell me what to do to make you fucking happy. What do you want?"

"I'd really like to go to bed now. We can resume the mission in the morning." He patted her right shoulder, then he stepped around her and continued walking. She bit down on her lower lip, her teeth pulling at the skin. "Come on. It's getting late." His voice had her following him, even though she still wanted a serious answer to her question. In the back of her mind, she wondered if she would kill him if Obito told her to. She didn't think she would, but there was always a seed of doubt. Kakashi needed sleep. She needed more wine.

It was almost dawn when she finally forced herself to bed.

Chapter Text

The red-light district was alive at night. The village completely transformed from a vacationer's paradise to the greatest den of sin she'd ever seen. In the red-light district, people loved to talk too much, so they were searching for loose lips. They started in rundown bars that led to numerous brothels, finding nothing but gossip. The client had spoken of cannibals, quite a few of them, but none of the people Kakashi spoke to even hinted at anything so taboo taking place in the village. The mission was a complete waste of time. On their second walk through, Kana planted herself at the bar in one of the more expensive establishments and ordered a whiskey on the rocks. Kakashi claimed the seat beside her and he ordered the same. While he looked at the other people seated at the bar, she studied the chakra signatures in the open room. There was a minor fluctuation that had her focusing on an older man with a limp, but she gathered that the oddity came from the man's prosthetic leg. His chakra network came to an abrupt end on one side, where the chakra just lingered in the remains of the limb. He wasn't a cannibal, as evidenced by the potato chips he ate, so she gave up.

"I don't think we're approaching this right."

"Oh? Do you want to go door to door asking if they eat people?"

"I don't want your attitude right now, Kana. I know it's because of how we ended last night, and I'm not interested in continuing the conversation. We're on a mission. Act like it."

"Fuck you, Kakashi. It's my mission. I'm in charge. We've exhausted our leads. Unless you want to sleep with some of these disgusting fuckers and hope they moan their secrets to you, I don't think you can contribute to this. Drink your whiskey."

He finished off his tumbler in one go and set it down with more force than necessary. She almost commented about his attitude, but she bit down on her tongue and looked down at the ice in her glass. He'd been terrible company, and she knew it had to do with the bitter words he'd thrown at her. He knew their complicated relationship was unbalanced, and his acknowledgement of it forced her to acknowledge it too. She couldn't say she loved Obito more. She refused to accept that she was given a man like Kakashi and still ran back to Obito, each and every time. She judged herself as she sipped her drink; she judged herself every time Kakashi avoided her eyes. With every breath, she hurt him. It was easier to focus on other people. She didn't have to think about her own unresolved issues. She sensed Jiraiya in the district, likely three establishments down. He was never the kind to pay for what he wanted. He always waited for the women to flock to him. He was charming, when he wasn't being a filthy pervert.

"There's a guy in the far corner, at a table of five. He's been watching us since we walked in," Kakashi informed her, his voice barely heard over the terrible music filtering through the old speakers. When she searched for the chakra signature, she found nothing odd. It was a young man with a wind affinity, possibly a current shinobi of unknown origin. She tapped out her response on the back of his hand and he sighed and moved his hand away from her. "We could always go undercover."

"Because I'm a woman, I get to play a whore? What is it with you and Obito wanting me on honeypot missions? No one would pay for a night with me. I'm too much."

"Yes, you are."

"But?"

"There is no 'but' involved."

"Asshole," she muttered, finishing off her whiskey. With her glass empty, she turned on her stool to observe the man in the corner. Their eyes met and he smiled in a way that had a chill racing down her spine. The other men at the table caught onto their staring contest, so she looked away. "He's a creep. The district is full of them. He knows I'm not a whore. There's nothing to investigate. This cloak deters people." Kakashi motioned for her to look again and she saw the man approaching. She didn't want the man near her. "If you leave me with him, Kakashi, I will-." Kana felt him use a body flicker and she swore under her breath. He'd truly left her there.

"You look lost." He was a tall man, easily towering over her, and he smelled like cheap beer and tobacco. He didn't ask if he could join her; he claimed Kakashi's open seat and whistled to get the bartender to make him a drink.

"Aren't you supposed to buy me a drink or something?" He made no move to order her a drink, and no offer came. She clicked her tongue and ordered another whiskey on the rocks.

"Don't you know who I am?"

"No one important."

"Now I can see why your friend left you. I'm Shojoji, leader of the Mujina Bandits."

"Who?" He instantly bristled, but she watched him school his features to hide his anger. His chakra signature told him all she needed to know. She'd heard of the group, but they were small-time criminals. They weren't good enough for the pages of the bingo book. "I'm looking for information. We might be able to trade." Shojoji took a long drink of the beer the bartender deposited before him, clearly waiting for her to continue. "I'm looking for a group of cannibals."

"Yugakure doesn't have cannibals." He was quick to dismiss her, a scoff the introduction to his words. Maybe she was wrong to think there was something in Yugakure. Maybe the client had been under the influence when he'd requested the help. "I suppose a group like yours would be in possession of many valuable items." He was trying to be subtle, but she wasn't an idiot. More than likely, he'd try to jump her the moment she left the bar. Crime stayed in the red-light district. "Like that blade."

Obito had gifted her the wakizashi, so the man's interest sparked her temper. She drowned the feeling in a drink and sucked the ice cube into her mouth to crunch it between her teeth. He frowned at the sound, his eyes dropping from her mouth to her chest, then away. He was an idiot, like she'd first thought. She toyed with the crystal dangling in her parted cloak. It was a time when she wore it, hoping someone would want it bad enough to trade her for something better. Or maybe she was just looking for a fight. After she'd crushed the ice between her teeth, she swallowed the pieces and chased it with another drink of whiskey.

"You're a long way from home, aren't you, Kana?"

"I was wondering when they'd get a photo to go with my bingo page. I hope it's a good one."

"It's not bad. You look less intimidating in person."

"I can change that." She glanced in his direction to show him her sharingan and he froze. She thought he looked like he wanted to piss himself, which made her smile. "My sword is off limits, along with anything else you might want to obtain from me." His eyes dropped to her necklace and she rolled her eyes. He was another common criminal. "Are you staring at my breasts or my necklace?" He looked up from the piece of crystal and she saw the panic in his eyes. It was a trick question. "Well, Shojoji?"

"Your breasts." She laughed when she caught him looking again. She knew he wanted the crystal. Like Doto, he probably saw ryo. She took it because it looked nice. She'd never considered selling it. She looked back fondly on her time in the Land of Snow. Shojoji had no chance at taking the crystal. "Your friend has been gone a long time. Is he coming back?"

"Mm, probably not. Are you offering to walk me back to my hotel?"

"I'd be glad to."

He motioned to the remaining members of the gang and they left their table. Kana watched them leave the bar and loiter just outside of the exit, then Shojoji stood and grinned at her, his eyes dark and beady in the dim lighting. He honestly thought he could take her in a fight. It made her wonder what he hid behind his hideous visage. Outside, Kana waited for the Mujina Bandits to make a formation around her, as if they honestly meant to protect her. Shojoji smiled at her again and the light from a street light reflected off the gold chain around his neck. Two buildings down, the formation began to close in around her, until they finally cut off her escape on all sides. Shojoji reached for the crystal, but she swiped at him with a kunai, narrowly missing his fingers. He frowned at the missed opportunity, but his bandits moved in for the kill. She took one down with a kunai to his right eye, where she thrust the weapon in until it wouldn't go further. He dropped, but the formation shifted to close her in again.

The Mujina Bandits weren't really bandits, something they proved when they handled kunai. Form and usage placed three of them at chunin rank, while the fourth had the speed of a jonin. The jonin was the problem, so she drew her wakizashi in quick-draw style and cut open the stomach of one of the chunin. Another slipped on the guts and fell to one knee, so she kicked him in the neck, destroying his windpipe. Fighting made her feel alive again. It gave her purpose. Life in Kirigakure had been difficult. With every slash of her blade, she cut away that part of her life, releasing frustrations that had collected over time. She didn't expect Shojoji to attack her, but when only the jonin remained, he used a one-handed seal to gather wind in the shape of a blade. The jonin used lightning release. She hated lightning release. Whenever she felt it being conjured, the flow of chakra transforming into lightning, her lightning flower scars ached.

Kakashi remained at a distance, forcing her to fight both wind and lightning on her own. What she learned from Obito about wind release gave her the advantage over the jonin, but not Shojoji. He used wind release to nullify her attacks, making it into a shield. Her fire techniques gave her an edge, but he was surprisingly fast. What he lacked in ninjutsu, he made up with quick thinking and reflexes. She used her sharingan on the jonin, trapping him in a layered genjutsu, then she used him as a shield. Shojoji showed no hesitation, one blow cutting from below the man's right eye, over the corner of his lips, and to his chin. Kana threw the man aside. When Kakashi finally made an appearance, Shojoji fled, leaving the remains of his group behind. Kana stooped down beside the jonin and checked his pulse, verifying that the man was still alive, then she stood and surveyed the damage. The fight had drawn no attention, because no one in the district was stupid enough to be witnesses or victims.

"You took your sweet time."

"You had it handled."

"You're still pissed off."

"Maybe a little." She gave him a flat look and he shrugged his shoulders, as if he couldn't help acting like a dick. "I recognize this guy. His lightning release is unique. Kumogakure," Kakashi said, nudging the man with the toe of his right sandal. He couldn't say more than that, because he recalled pink lightning and nothing more. The man had nothing of value, but Kana still searched him and came up empty. "Your new friend is probably long gone?" He looked to her for confirmation, so she searched for Shojoji in the village. The man was fast, already outside village limits.

"He's fast for being so fat," she shared, a sigh following. Their mission had reached another dead end. Shojoji could have been lying about the lack of cannibals in Yugakure, but her gut told her that his quick rejection of the idea had been genuine. "Kakashi, about last night," she tried, earning silence. He looked at her, waiting for her to continue. "I don't mean to make you feel left out. You are important to me."

"Let’s head back. We can meet with the client in the morning.”

Chapter Text

“I hate you.”

“Mhm.”

“Your life is mine.”

“If you weren't glaring at me and threatening to murder me, I'd tell you how beautiful you look in your dress." He smiled and she turned her nose up at him, though he still held her attention. His hands settled on her hips and he leaned in, as if he meant to kiss her. He inhaled the scent of hibiscus that clung to her skin. "You agreed to this date. Give it a chance. On page seventy-three, Chisato sees her first snowfall with her lover Tetsu. He spent days planning their date. She cherished that moment for the rest of her life."

"I fucking knew you pulled this from somewhere. This isn't your book! This dress is too long, and you didn't dress up at all. You just took the cloak off. If this is the extent of this date, you're never getting another one." Kana tripped over the bottom hem of her dress for the third time since they'd started their stroll through Shinkiro. Annoyed, she tore the bottom of the dress off, taking it slightly above her knees, then she tossed the ruined fabric into a trashcan. "Kakashi, I know you tried, but we're terrible at this." She reached down and removed her heels, tossing them in the same trashcan. Kakashi sighed at her display.

"I thought we could enjoy a nice stroll before dinner."

"Did you plan on paying for this dinner?"

"On page sixty-five, Chisato didn't mind paying for her date with Tetsu."

"No more reading Icha Icha for ideas. I'm not Chisato. It's really tempting to let you retrieve Obito so we can have another explosive argument." Kakashi snorted and she placed her hands on his cheeks to force him to look at her. With his gaze on her, she let her hands fall. "Let's skip this. Buy me dinner and I'll sleep with you later." He smiled, his visible eye closed in a way that drew a smile from her. He was an idiot, but he was her idiot. He lightly tapped her ass and her smile dropped. "Dinner."

"Ah, yes. On page eighty-nine, they experiment with eating food off of their naked bodies. It's an interesting thought." He was teasing her, so she slapped his right thigh. With a hum, he took one of her hands in his. They didn't do public displays of affection, so it was different. No one gave them looks, even with her ripped dress and lack of shoes. Shinkiro was a place of diversity. "I did put some thought into this date. Your dress lasted a lot longer than I'd anticipated though."

"You think I'm beautiful?" The doubtful expression made her look more sour than suspicious. He chuckled and she squeezed his hand a little too hard. Unlike Obito, he didn't try to hurt her in return.

"I do." He seemed embarrassed just by answering her question. She stopped walking and he stopped too. People continued moving around them. Jiraiya had always been appreciative of women, so the man's empty compliment meant nothing to her. She thought of Kaisei, how the word sounded on his lips; she thought of Obito, how he complimented her after sex. "I've never told you?" She shook her head. He rested his hand against her right cheek and brushed his thumb over her skin. "You're beautiful."

"You're pathetic."

"Then why are you blushing?"

"The light is playing tricks on you." Still, she leaned in and he lowered his mask long enough to kiss her. She barely caught the cute smile on his face before he concealed it with his mask again. He looked happy, happier than he had during their time together in Konoha. He hadn’t forgiven her, and she knew that, but they’d managed to make peace. “Let’s go. I want cake,” she announced, patting his chest. They stepped away from one another, and he didn’t take her hand again. After hesitating, she took his hand. He smiled, his eye closing for that small crescent one more time. His looks would get him everywhere.

Shinkiro was a tourist destination because it was a relatively large oasis community in the northern heart of the Land of Wind. It lacked the gold touches that the capital had, but it made up for the absence with abundant clean water and a low crime rate. At sunset, the whole sky was drenched in varying degrees of red, pink, purple, and blue; the colors and the wisps of clouds reminded Kana of a watercolor painting—everything blended together. While she would have fought to obtain a break from missions, Kakashi simply stated he was going on vacation and Obito had reluctantly consented, cutting Pein and Konan out of the picture entirely. She would remember her time in Shinkiro, how the sky seamlessly transitioned from one shade to the next, all of that color reflected on the world.

Kakashi bought cheap takeout for dinner, his romantic idea to win her over with fresh, hot gyoza and yakitori. For dessert, Kakashi bought a whole matcha cake that she would inevitably devour before the night ended. There was nothing romantic about the food they shared, but Kana enjoyed every moment with him. She would die before she ever admitted how much she loved spending time with him. She wrote her unusual happiness off as some weird side effect from eating too much cake. If he noticed her staring at him, he didn't point it out. They sat at the table in their room and shared the remainder of the cake, eating and drinking wine until Kana felt a pleasant buzz envelop her. She was more than content.

"Tell me about your genin team." She didn't know why he touched the subject of her childhood, but she felt comfortable enough to revisit the early days in her career. Both boys had been stupid, their deaths a result of self sacrifice in a bid for mission success. And she'd let them go. She'd let Iwagakure take both of them. Unlike them, she was too selfish and too stubborn to die. She licked her lips and savored the taste of the blackberry wine. "You don't have to. I've never been so open about my past."

"Akito and Souta were idiots. Akito insisted on claiming the team leader position, even though he was entirely incompetent and his strategies were always terrible. Souta was soft-spoken in comparison. He excelled in ninjutsu. He was quiet, but his talent with earth release saved our asses more than once. He sacrificed himself to buy us time for a retreat. My genin team was my family when I needed one. Losing him felt like losing a part of myself. Akito saved my life from a member of the explosion corps. Up until then, I'd never seen the carnage brought on by war. I remember what it felt like to complete the mission. My sensei congratulated me, and I was promoted to chunin. Kaisei helped me move on. I felt like I'd died with my teammates. Succeeding felt a lot like failing." She took a large drink of wine, as if she meant to swallow future words. Kakashi had remained silent for the duration of her response, though he noticed the way she hesitated, the way she stared into space. He understood. Of course he understood.

"It does feel like failure, doesn't it?"

"I gained two tomoe on that mission alone. Some would say it was worth the cost."

"It isn't. It's devastating." He stared into his glass, noting exactly how much wine he had left to consume. She could tell he wanted to say something. She silently prayed that he wouldn't touch the subject of his childhood. But her prayers went unanswered. "I was a stupid kid. I knew exactly how to hurt everyone around me, and people excused my behavior because they saw biting sarcasm and mystery, or maybe because girls were attracted to me. I treated Obito poorly and disregarded Rin. Obito changed my perspective on human life. He saw good in my father that overshadowed the guilt and shame and anger related to my father's suicide. Some rules were meant to be broken. Without Obito, I wouldn't be the person I am today."

"Hm. You get lost in ANBU. It becomes everything you need when you need purpose. For us, we never really moved on. The wounds still seemed fresh. I'd say that you both affected my life." He hummed, the sensitive topics shoved aside in favor of finishing off the wine. When the wine was gone, she gave the bottle a little shake and his shoulders slumped. "This date wasn't terrible," she admitted, though she felt emotionally drained. He made a noise of agreement. "You've talked about Rin and Obito, but you've never talked about your parents." She didn't know why the statement emerged when she'd meant to dodge a continuation of their heavy conversation. She blamed curiosity.

"Ah, I haven't." He sighed and she felt a stirring of an emotion she couldn't identify. His momentary vulnerability made her want to fix everything that had happened to him throughout his life, even though she knew she couldn't.

"You don't have to talk about them."

"Maybe it's overdue. My mother died during childbirth. My father told me quite a few stories about her to try and create a bond, but I had no attachment to her. I had some pictures of her, but I threw them out when I thought my family was a disgrace." He chose to talk about his mother first, because he didn't know the woman. He'd never experienced any feelings of guilt for his role in his mother's death. His father had always insisted he wasn't to blame. "My father was my hero. Over time, I forgot that. His failed mission made me ashamed of him. The anger I felt was misplaced. I was too young to understand. Prior to his death, and for some years after, I hated him. I regret it. I don't talk about him because I have no way to truly make peace with his passing. I still don't know how to move on. Perhaps no one really does."

"When was the last time you visited his grave? I'm willing to cut this little vacation short and break into Konoha for you. Being a villain means we can be bad whenever we want," she informed him, a shrug following her words. He chuckled, and she wished she could have seen his smile for herself. He thought she was joking. "I mean it. Say the word and we're gone. If Obito can fuck off whenever he wants, so can we." Maybe it was the wine contributing to her willingness to return to Konoha. He contemplated her words, idly moving his empty glass over the table.

"I'm not willing to kill my former comrades."

"Lucky for you, I am."

"No."

"Hospitalize them?"

"No career ending injuries," he relented, a smile all he received from her. He rolled his eyes at her, but she swore she saw fondness in his gaze. She could imagine murdering their former ANBU team. They weren't bad people, but they'd always filed reports littered with complaints about her behavior and mental stability. "I mean it. I know what you're thinking." She huffed at him, not bothering to lie about her thoughts. He stood and offered his hand to help her to her feet. "I believe you mentioned sleeping with me."

"Shut up, Kakashi."

Chapter Text

The tulips were gone. She couldn't remember the color of the flowers, and that hit her harder than their absence. She recalled everything from her last night in the village, except for the color of her mother's tulips. Something so insignificant suddenly mattered. Beside her, Kakashi remained silent, though he rested his left hand on her shoulder, a show of his support. She tried not to think of that night, but when thoughts of her mother's tulips came to an end, she had nothing but the clear memory of her parents' blood fanning out across the hardwood floor of her childhood home.

As she removed the boards from over the door, she saw light from the television shining through the window. She heard the last echo of her father's laughter. At night, he transformed into a decent human being. She used to sneak downstairs to watch the transformation, as if she were watching a caterpillar transform into a brilliant butterfly. Her memories served no purpose, or maybe they did. Maybe they forced her to see the best of a family she'd hated, one she'd completely destroyed. Maybe she was the bad guy, even when she thought she wasn't.

After the last board had been ripped away, she opened the unlocked door and stepped into the entryway. She expected to find pools of blood, but she found dark stains, from where the blood had soaked into the hardwood. Her parents' blood would never come out. Their bodies had lain there for too long. Kana wondered if Kakashi knew how to clean up the mess, since he'd found his father in a pool of blood. Had he replaced the flooring? She could imagine a small child tearing up the floorboards to lift the heavy reminder of his father's passing.

She stooped down to run a hand over the hardwood, as if she expected her palm to be coated in dark red. Kakashi watched her process the scene. He didn't rush her to leave. He didn't escort her from the property. He waited, his presence enough. She wasn't alone, and that was for the best. She wondered if Kakashi had left his childhood home, running away from that part of his past. They'd never talked about it. They'd never talked about her last night there, when she'd murdered her family. He knew she'd done it for him. He knew, given the chance, she would do it all over again.

"The floor is ruined," she finally spoke, looking up at him. He frowned, his gaze moving from her face to the hardwood. "Did you have to replace your flooring?" Maybe it was insensitive of her, but the question fell from her lips. She didn't expect him to answer. Bringing up his father's suicide was picking at an open wound. She knew about open wounds.

"It was tatami, but his blood had spread. It was easier to move. I've never gone back. I'd guess that we still have belongings in the home. I left quite a lot." He sounded detached, as if focusing on the facts kept him together. She knew they should avoid the neglected home at all costs, but visiting her childhood home reminded her of the frayed attachments she'd had to her family. "I'd rather not go there," he shared, clearly reading her mind. Her expression had given her away.

"I want to see where you used to live."

"It's just a house, Kana."

"Look, all we've done is avoid shit. Maybe I don't want to do that anymore. Maybe I'd like to know more about you."

"There isn't much to tell."

"Fuck you. We're going."

"Doesn't this house remind you that you killed your parents? I don't know why you chose to come here, but I don't want to face my demons. You know what happened. Every shinobi in this village knows what happened. What do you want from me?" He frowned at her, his expression communicating his frustration in a way that words couldn't. She bit down on the inside of her right cheek, stalling to process her own response. She wondered if she simply wanted him to hurt in the way that she hurt. He slipped his hands into the pockets of his pants and turned to go.

"This place holds a few happy memories, and I thought they would drown out the sense of loss. I was never enough, but sometimes my parents had moments that made me feel loved, all of those instances during my childhood. My sixth birthday, my father took me hunting and showed me how to skin a rabbit. It was a traumatic experience, but it was the first time he'd told me that he was proud of me. When I graduated from the academy, my mother invited the neighborhood kids and hosted a party for me. I beat up a kid trying to bully me. When my mother was informed of my behavior, she scolded me, and then she asked if I'd won. It was the only time she showed support for my future as a shinobi."

"You loved them. Even though your family was dysfunctional, even though they criticized you and belittled you, you loved them, and there's nothing wrong with that." She thought he might have left her there, but he hesitated in the doorway before turning to face her again.

"I miss them sometimes. I never thought I would."

"I miss my father every day. I wonder if I could have said something or done something to have prevented his death. I obsess over the last words I said to him. I told him I was ashamed of him. I purposely hurt him. It was stupid of me. I was a stupid, selfish brat."

"I wonder if we even have a right to miss them. We both said shit we shouldn't have said. I told them I wished I was the last of my clan. That was too much. We can't change anything. I came here chasing ghosts. I guess I expected you to do the same." She stood and wiped her hands off on the thighs of her romper. Even though the blood wasn't fresh, even though the scene had been cleaned to the best of the village's ability, she still felt dirty. "Let's just go. We need to visit your father's grave." She walked past him, but as she did, she lightly patted his chest.

He led the way to his father's grave. His hands were still in his pockets and his head was down, as if he meant to block out the familiar path to the cemetery. Kana didn't know what to say to him, not when she blamed herself for their voyage. She watched him shut down with every step he took. How many times had he visited the grave? Did it earn his prayers and pleas like the memorial stone? She thought about taking his hand, but another look confirmed that he hadn't removed his hands from his pockets. He looked small, and maybe that was the point behind his slouched posture and his slow steps. She tried to think of something to say, but she wasn't used to comforting someone. Kakashi deserved someone able to support him, even when he didn't think he needed that support, even when he stood tall. She licked her dry lips and curled her hands into fists.

"You told me he was a good dad. What was he like before the failed mission?” She knew that asking the question came with the possibility that he would close off altogether and demand they leave before they even reached the gravesite. He was quiet for so long that she reconsidered her silent encouragement to keep him moving. He looked up, for the first time since they’d left her childhood home. “We can go, Kakashi. We don’t have to do this,” she quietly admitted, thinking it was the right thing to say.

“I was always mature for my age, and he knew that better than anyone. He encouraged me in everything, from something as simple as brushing my teeth properly to handling the aftermath of killing my first person. He prepared me for the world, as a civilian and as a shinobi. He gave me the choice. It sounded crazy to outsiders, to give a toddler the choice, but we both knew I had some understanding of what it meant to become a shinobi. I wanted to make him proud of me. I wanted to grow up to be just like him. I was an accident, but he never made me feel that way. He had a good heart. No matter how exhausted he was, he always made himself available for me. He was considering retirement before that last mission.” Kakashi didn’t look at her as he spoke. He stared straight ahead, as if he saw into his past by staring into the distance. When he finally looked over at her, he smiled a genuine smile, though it spoke of sadness and a sense of longing. She’d never met Sakumo, but she recalled his bingo page. She’d known that he and Kakashi were the last of a great clan. Without Sakumo, only Kakashi remained. The clan would die with him. “I wish you could have met him. I think he would have liked you.”

“So he was insane. Got it.” Kakashi chuckled and she hid a smile by turning away from him. He removed his right hand from his pocket and settled it on her lower back. Maybe Sakumo really would have liked her. That thought reinforced her desire to visit the gravesite. When they reached the grave, Kakashi stared at the clean area. “Someone must be looking after the grave. Do you think it’s your eternal rival or the tree stump?” He sighed at her rude nickname for Tenzo, but he didn’t correct her. Maybe he’d tired of her slipping in insults for his friends. “We don’t have long. The patrol started a few minutes ago.”

The headstone was unique, and she found that fitting. She wondered if Kakashi had chosen the stone when he was angry, or if he’d seriously put thought into the marker. The stone was clean, though void of engravings, like the man’s name, birthdate, and death date. Only Kakashi truly needed to know the facts surrounding his father. Maybe they should have brought flowers, but she hadn’t thought about that detail. Maybe she should have visited her parents’ graves and left them flowers. Frowning, she placed a hand on Kakashi’s shoulder and then stepped away to steal white chrysanthemums from another person’s grave. She didn’t know the person, and she didn’t think they would miss the flowers. She thought Sakumo deserved the flowers, so she split them with Kakashi and they placed them before the headstone, the pristine flowers a highlight against the green grass. As Kakashi closed his eyes to silently send his thoughts and prayers to his deceased father, she tracked the patrol as they neared the cemetery. When they were out of time, she took his right hand and squeezed. He understood exactly what she communicated with that simple gesture.

“Thank you,” he smiled, his visible eye closed in that cute crescent shape. She sighed at his display, but she leaned up and kissed his masked cheek. “We should head back to Amegakure. I might have mentioned that our vacation would last two days, and that was three days ago.” She couldn’t help her loud laughter, knowing that he was telling the truth, knowing that Obito likely wondered where the fuck they were. He hadn’t tracked them though. Maybe Obito knew they needed time to readjust. Kakashi lowered his mask and stole a kiss from her, then they dodged the patrol and went for the village exit.

Chapter Text

September arrived with the first touch of fall weather. The wind carried a chill that would worsen in the coming months. Kakashi turned twenty-four, another milestone for them to celebrate. As they shared sushi and sake, he tried to ignore the way she silently observed him. He hadn't asked for dozens of presents or a wild party, not that they had the money or the people to make either thing a reality, but she still wanted to acknowledge the day in the way he deserved. He ate his last piece of sushi, the food there and gone in an instant, and concealed his face once more. Obito had promised to meet up with them, but he was late again.

She could tell that Obito’s absence hurt Kakashi, even if the man tried to hide it. They'd gone weeks without contact with Obito, the letters exchanged and subtle sensing of their whereabouts all that they received. And it was better than nothing. No matter how many times she thought of that fact, that any communication was better than none, she still wanted him around. She and Kakashi danced around the subject, both of them burying themselves in their missions to avoid admitting how they felt about the treatment. In the end, they acknowledged that having one another was better than being alone.

"Do you want a male prostitute?" Her question had him choking on the last bit of his sake. When he recovered from his coughing fit, he looked surprised, as if he couldn't believe she'd asked the question. "You've wanted to experiment. I just thought you might be interested. You're still so shy with Obito. Maybe you'll find that you enjoy sleeping with men and it'll give you the push you need to try your hand at seducing him." She shrugged her shoulders and downed the remainder of her sake. She saw when he began to consider her offer, how he drummed his fingers on their low table. He clearly doubted her, and she did nothing to reassure him. Her offer had been genuine, something she’d thought of once or twice during their time on the road. There were some things she couldn’t do for him, some things he could only truly experience with another man.

"You get incredibly jealous and possessive," he said, clearly suspicious of her willingness to approve of the idea. She knew that finding the right prostitute would make it easier for her to accept Kakashi's decision. And he continued entertaining the thought of a night with a man who wasn't Obito. They had no more sake, something she discovered when she checked the bottle. The waitress hadn’t returned to their private room in over twenty minutes. "Would you both be okay with that?" Kakashi frowned, clearly indecisive. To be honest, she didn’t know how Obito would handle the news. She’d never run her thoughts by him, because he was noticeably absent. She imagined he would pretend it didn’t bother him. And he would deserve whatever he felt, for fucking off again.

"I won't tell if you won't tell."

"That's a horrible approach and it will never work.”

"Fair. I would immediately betray you and watch him burn you to a crisp,” she joked, rolling her eyes. She could tell that he thought she was serious. She nudged the rest of her food away and reached across the table to touch his hand. “Don’t think about what Obito wants or how he would feel. Your relationship, which isn’t a relationship, is crawling along and it’s a pathetic show. I’m willing to get you a man for the night. We’ll pick one who isn’t repulsive. I won’t even kill him when you’re done with him, unless you want me to,” she offered, sincerity in her tone. He looked down at her hand on his, then he sighed. She couldn’t tell if he meant to surrender or dismiss her, so she waited for him to find the words. “You can say no. It’s an offer you can decline. Maybe you aren’t ready yet,” she shrugged, pulling her hand back.

“Let’s give him another hour.” She smiled, then the waitress made an appearance and brought them more sake. Kana kept his cup full, silently encouraging him to loosen up and accept the rest of the night. When they reached the hour mark, she let him finish off the remainder of his sake, then they left the restaurant to wander the streets of Kusagakure. After the civil war had died down in the Land of Grass, the returning men sought pleasure. Prostitution became Kusagakure’s biggest export, so to speak. The red-light district was seedy, but something to behold. She preferred it to the one in Yugakure because the men and women weren’t afraid to sell their bodies on the street, if they pleased. “If I change my mind, we leave.”

He let her know the rule while they surveyed the numerous brothels. In the beginning, only young boys had worked in the brothels, but times had changed, laws had changed, and men and women inhabited the district. Kakashi caught her hand and stopped her on the street. She followed his line of sight and found a man with pale skin and black hair that reminded her too much of an Uchiha. She wondered if Kakashi knew about his type. Kakashi looked at her for her opinion, so she studied every inch of the man. The man had dark hair, gray eyes, and a pale blue kimono that brought out the color in his eyes. He wasn’t a regular prostitute, because he had large chakra reserves and a fire affinity that really had her doubting his lineage. Maybe he was like a lot of other shinobi in the Land of Grass, unable to find missions and desperate to obtain money. That was the problem. Without the war, the political climate was stagnant. Former shinobi or not, he was a good looking young man, definitely worthy of a chance. After a firm nod, she took the first step in the man’s direction.

“He’s a shinobi, or a former shinobi. Hm. Easily a jonin. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s hiding weapons in that kimono,” she noted, a little amused at the thought. Kakashi looked uncomfortable, but he hummed. Maybe it was the fact that he’d never sought sex from a worker, that he’d never considered the idea of resorting to that. “He’s good looking,” she added, clearly trying to draw him out of his doubtful mind frame. Before they reached the man, she lightly nudged his side with her elbow. “If you lose interest, signal me. We’ll find someone else.”

“Ah, I don’t think so. You’re in this with me,” Kakashi smiled, shoving her forward. She nearly stumbled into the young man, but he wasn’t surprised to see her. His gray eyes moved between them, some amusement buried in them. He came off apathetic and reserved, though not cold. Some clients appreciated that in a man. He wasn’t flamboyant or flashy. If she met him on any other street, she might have passed right by him. Kakashi arrived seconds after her, looking just as uncertain as he had when they were down the street.

“He’s never done this before,” the man immediately said, his eyes focused on Kakashi. When his gaze lowered, he took in their black cloaks with red clouds, but he showed no outward reaction. She could tell that he knew what the cloaks stood for. More than likely, he’d memorized the bingo book, as most shinobi did. They didn’t need introductions, but he chose to pretend. “I’m Muku.” It could have been his real name or a pseudonym. She’d never considered lying about her own name. Kakashi seemed to consider it, before ultimately shrugging his shoulders. “The copycat shinobi,” Muku supplied, earning a shallow nod. “I’d heard you’d defected. Kakashi, isn’t it?”

“Yes. That would be me,” Kakashi admitted, seeming a little embarrassed about his situation. Kana thought he might look to her for some kind of direction or support, but he didn’t. He slowly considered his words and then gave up on them entirely. “I think you look nice.” Kana pressed her lips together to keep from laughing at him and turned her head away. Muku blinked a few times, then the man looked down at his own attire. “Not the kimono,” Kakashi explained, his flirting still awkward. Muku smiled and Kana knew that they would be fine together. She slapped Kakashi’s ass and slipped away before he could stop her. She glanced back and caught Muku laughing, so she felt confident that she could leave.

Two hours later, three hands into a card game and six shots down, she finally felt warm embers enter the village limits. The other men at the table looked over at her when she placed her whole hand down, then they threw their cards into the pile and allowed her to sweep the ryo into her pouch. They’d all had losing hands, though none of them had been smart enough to fold. She let her chakra expand as she searched for Kakashi’s signature. He was still with Muku, the two of them located south of her, likely in one of the more private buildings. With her ryo collected, she stood, finished off her last shot, and left the table to meet Obito outside. The air outside was cool, even with her cloak, but she didn’t have to walk long to meet up with him. Though his eye remained on her, she felt him searching for Kakashi. He looked confused, his visible eye narrowed, then the expression vanished altogether. She could tell he still didn’t understand, but she chose not to clarify anything. He grunted in greeting and she patted his chest. Anything he’d had in mind for Kakashi’s birthday was tossed out the proverbial window. As they walked down the street, Obito looked back, clearly still searching for Kakashi. She knew when he pieced the puzzle together because he came to an abrupt halt and turned around.

“No you don’t,” Kana frowned, blocking his way. His eye narrowed, he looked between her face and the rest of the street separating him from Kakashi. “He deserves to have a little fun, and you aren’t providing shit. And before you accuse him of wasting Akatsuki money, I made up the difference gambling.” She gave her pouch a shake so he could hear the many ryo contained in the bag. He hummed, and she gave him a minute before taking one of his hands and tugging him in the opposite direction. His posture was stiff and his chakra circulated too fast, reminding her of a forest fire slowly gaining traction. She knew if she let him go, he would likely try to fight Muku. “You’re late as hell. Where have you been?”

“There’s a group in the Land of Hot Water that you’re going to be tracking,” he replied, still distracted. “Where is he?” He didn’t sound happy, but she wasn’t surprised. He was impatient and impulsive, and she knew about both of those things. She’d been stuffing her own jealousy and impatience down for hours. With a sigh, she stopped him from turning around for a second time. “He’s with someone,” Obito said, as if she didn’t already know it. She feigned surprise and he pinched her side. “He’s with someone and you’re alright with it? So if I wanted to pick up a common prostitute, you would be-?” She cut him off by squeezing his hand hard enough to crack his fingers. He hissed in pain and slapped her ass too hard, so she released his hand and huffed at him. “Are you going to kill this person?” His prying had only begun and her nerves already felt frayed. She shifted on her feet, avoiding his gaze. “You aren’t. Wow.”

“Shut up!” He chuckled as she tried to swat him and her hand passed right through him. She followed up with a fist that he deflected. He leaned in so he could whisper in her ear, but she turned her head and glared at him. “He’s with a man, alright?” Obito pulled back and blinked at her, slow to process her words. She sighed and waved her hand in the direction of the building. “I don’t have a dick, and he’s curious. You’re not making a move. He deserves a chance to explore. And no, it wasn’t his idea. He was impossible the entire time. He expected me to go and hold his hand, I guess?”

“You left him with a stranger?”

“He’d love to tell you he was a chunin at six and that he went on to be an ANBU captain, but he’s getting railed right now, so you’re just going to have to accept the facts from me.”

“Why didn’t he just say he was interested?” Obito was tired of having the conversation on the street, so she guided him toward the hotel room she shared with Kakashi. He kept muttering to himself as they walked. Maybe she should have answered him, but she didn’t. She let him have his one-sided rant as she guided him into the hotel, past the shocked front desk clerk, and up to the room. Inside, she removed his mask so she could see the deep frown marring his features. “He should have said something,” Obito insisted, grouchy as hell. She set his mask down on the bedside table and returned to him. “Did he tell you something?” He was trying to make it her fault again and she simply rested her hands on his cheeks and guided him into a kiss.

“He’s not going to run off with the guy. He’s experimenting,” Kana calmly explained, her hands moving to his chest. He didn’t appreciate her words, as evidenced by the volatility of his chakra. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. He looked down at her, looking more receptive after her attempt at utilizing a coping skill. “You want to run off and rip him away from this guy, and I know how you feel, but he’s coming back to us. He doesn’t have feelings for that man. He will never see that man again. It’s a few hours out of the night. He’ll be back before morning. Are you even fucking listening to me?” Kana scowled and lightly kicked his shin, regaining his attention. He looked in the direction of Kakashi’s signature, and they felt the movement of electricity, like static running through their bodies. “Do not yell at him. Do not hit him. When he gets back here, act like a sane human being. If you hurt him, we’re gone, and you can use your hand for the foreseeable future.” Obito dropped onto the bottom of the bed and frowned at the far wall, but it was better than ripping the door off the hinges and meeting Kakashi in the middle of the street.

“He’s probably going to smell like cheap cologne and shame.”

“See? That would hurt him. Don’t say that shit.” Obito wouldn’t look at her, so she shook her head and gave up on him. She tossed her sandals into the corner and paced for a few minutes before she surrendered and sat down next to him. Hands resting underneath her thighs, she tried not to stare at the door. The minutes dragged on, each passing moment slower than the last. “Just wish him a happy belated birthday and don’t run off, alright?” She kept her voice low because she felt Kakashi reach the second floor of the hotel. Obito glanced at her, though he didn’t respond to the words. As the doorknob turned, she felt Obito tense.

Kakashi poked his head into the room first, then he entered and closed the door behind himself. Kana looked him over for signs of wrinkled clothing, something amiss about his cloak or his mask or his pants, but he looked exactly the same as he had when they’d last seen one another. He didn’t smell like cheap cologne or sex, so her expression fell. He rubbed the back of his head, standing before them as if he were about to admit his failure. She was disappointed, and she knew that he gathered it from the silence. While Obito frowned at him, Kana got to her feet and rested her hands on his shoulders, giving them a squeeze.

“He was a good conversationalist. He’s a former shinobi, and Muku is his real name. His father is Mui, the master of Hozuki Castle. That’s interesting, isn’t it?” Kakashi was trying to keep the atmosphere light-hearted, but it only made Kana feel worse about leaving him on his own. Obito seemed a little more in control of himself, the anger buried in his chakra calming with every word. It took her a few minutes to realize that the son of the master of the blood prison was a male prostitute. He noticed when they both finally grasped his words. “His father tried to get him to unlock the Gokuraku no Hako.” Kana didn’t recognize the name, but Obito did. “I thought that might get your attention,” Kakashi smiled, no longer as sheepish about his evening spent conversing. “The Box of Ultimate Bliss has been around since the time of the Sage of Six Paths. It allowed for Kusagakure to rule the world, or so the tale goes. You need someone with a great deal of chakra to get the box to open, and in exchange, one wish is granted. Every so often, news of it comes out. It’s why there’s a guardian for it. And that would be Mui, Muku’s father.”

“Do you honestly believe this shit?” Kana snorted at Obito’s sudden interest in the story, but he didn’t scold her. He still looked thoughtful, as if he’d never considered the fact that the box had been unearthed again. She had a feeling that he would wish for his dream to come to fruition, but nothing came free. Everything about the story was suspicious. “Has this ever been confirmed?” Kakashi shrugged his shoulders, so she took it to mean that everything was based on surviving records from that time. Frowning, she slapped Obito’s thigh and he pinched her side. “We aren’t sacrificing a jinchuriki to the box to get your wish of mass destruction to come true.”

“It’s not mass destruction. It’s saving the world. And we would only be sacrificing one.”

“Kakashi, why would you tell him this shit?”

“To be fair, I was just recounting a story. Obito really took it to heart. How is that my fault? Now also might be a good time to mention that Muku is joining us on our travels,” Kakashi smiled again, his words halting the muttered disagreement going on between Kana and Obito. Kana stared at him for a few moments, trying to comprehend how he’d gone from talking to a total stranger to inviting the man into their lives. Obito got to his feet, in a show to intimidate Kakashi, one that ultimately failed. “Now you may be upset, but he’s just looking for a place to call home-.”

“Akatsuki isn’t a charity organization or a homeless shelter! We are not a nonprofit!”

“I’m aware of that, but he’s willing and able to contribute. He’s a prodigy.”

“I don’t care! The answer is no!”

“I thought you might say that, so I told him he had to meet with you-.”

“Fucking talk to him, Kana!”

Obito threw his hands into the air and stalked into the bathroom, where he slammed the door and rattled everything in the room. Kana stared at the bathroom door, waiting for the inevitable temper tantrum, then she arched a brow at Kakashi. He looked as if the display had taken a lot out of him, so he sat down beside her and buried his face in his hands. He’d been hiding behind humor again. She’d known that. He let her wrap an arm around him, so she sighed and squeezed him to her side. He’d likely embarrassed himself in front of Muku and ruined the whole evening for himself. She tried to think of something to say to make him feel better about his failed attempt at branching out, but she could only think of her first time and how embarrassing that had been. Wrinkling her nose, she quickly shoved that idea aside and settled for softly saying his name.

“I couldn’t,” he began, the rest of the words gone. She winced at the thought of him being unable to get an erection. Muku was a very handsome man. Being a woman, she’d never had to worry about erections, but there had been instances when she simply wasn’t in the mood. It just wasn’t the same. “Maybe I’m just not sexually attracted to men,” he mumbled into his hands, the words lost to her. When he realized she didn’t understand him, he dropped his hands and repeated the sentence.

“Judging by the fact that you liked to moan Obito’s name while fucking me, I’m going to say that’s not true, and direct you to the man throwing a tantrum in our bathroom,” Kana stated, her tone bland. Kakashi looked at the bathroom door, then bowed his head again. “It happens sometimes. Maybe you’re just not sexually attracted to Muku. Do you want to try again? The district doesn’t sleep until dawn.” He covered his face with his hands again and she sighed. She really didn’t know how to get him over his embarrassment. “Do you want me to kill Muku?” He moved his hands so she could see his frown. “Fine. What do you want, Kakashi? And don’t try that shit you pulled with Obito and make up that lie about Muku joining us on our travels, got it?”

“Technically-.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“I was embarrassed and it came up in the conversation-.”

She tugged down his mask and he stopped speaking, but she still slapped a palm over his mouth. She didn’t want to know the details surrounding his massive mistake, because Obito was likely listening in on them, and she didn’t want a broken mirror when she was trying to brush her hair in the morning. Kakashi kissed her palm and she smiled at him, because he was sappy. When she moved her hand from over his lips, he sighed and looked at the bathroom door. Her jealousy stirred and she hated how it worked in time with her chakra. As it rose, she subconsciously pushed her chakra outward, where it came out as mild killing intent. He jerked away from her, his instincts telling him that she was an enemy. He had a kunai in his hand before he even realized what he was doing, and she recoiled from him because she’d completely missed her own reaction. The bathroom door snapped open and Obito looked between them, wondering why they both looked startled. Kakashi lowered the kunai and she relaxed her muscles, returning to her former spot on the bed. Kakashi ran a hand over his face as he tucked the kunai away, clearly conflicted about his own reaction. His body had marked her as a threat, but he knew she wasn’t a threat. Nothing had mattered more than his fight or flight instinct.

“You were leaking killing intent,” Obito said, clarifying it for both of them. When she recalled when her jealousy started, she groaned and threw herself onto the bed. Kakashi looked down at her, so she put her right forearm over her eyes to avoid looking at him. Obito knew all about her feelings, how her jealousy sometimes escaped her, how her every emotion could be reflected in her chakra. Kakashi didn’t know, because he’d been completely out of it when she’d reacted to Botan. “Hm, really?” Obito knew her reaction, but he didn’t know the reason for the reaction. He incorrectly assumed it was related to Muku. She moved her forearm and turned her head toward him so they could see one another. He broke eye contact to look at Kakashi.

“What is it?” Kakashi clearly had no idea what was going on. Kana had suddenly released killing intent that set him on edge, his body reacting before he had to time register that it was only Kana. To him, they were acting strange. Kana shifted her focus to the ceiling, so she was still avoiding him. “My body reacted,” he tried to explain, thinking that she was angry because of his knee-jerk reaction to pull a kunai on her. She didn’t care that he’d drawn a kunai against her. He’d done a lot worse to her. She was ruining everything and they were getting on her nerves for doing absolutely nothing wrong, which made no sense.

“I’m not upset with you. Look at Obito,” she frowned, jabbing a thumb in Obito’s direction. Confused, Kakashi looked at Obito, but she didn’t see anything pass between them. She sighed through her nose. “Obito, take off your cloak. Don’t ask why. Just please do it,” she instructed, still focused on Kakashi. She heard Obito remove the cloak, then she saw Kakashi’s eyes drop from Obito’s face to take in the man’s body and the room filled with killing intent. Kakashi jumped away from her, reaching for a kunai he stopped himself from drawing, while Obito chuckled. Kana clenched her jaw and focused on the ceiling again, silently simmering in her own anger. She had accepted the idea of Kakashi sleeping with another man, because she couldn’t give him what he wanted, but she couldn’t accept the idea of Kakashi sleeping with Obito, because they had no right to want one another unless it revolved around her.

“You’re jealous,” Obito pointed out, still amused. “Are you jealous at the thought of us being together without you?” She hated that he was right, so she rewarded him with no reaction. Kakashi looked confused, as if he’d never considered leaving her out of the relationship, but that didn’t matter. She didn’t want them focused on one another. She thought that she’d accepted it and encouraged it, but she was wrong. Obito nudged her ankle with his foot. “Didn’t you say we’re polyamorous now?” She glared at the ceiling to show that she didn’t appreciate his teasing tone. She didn’t want them touching. She didn’t even want them looking at one another. She was impossible. At that realization, she groaned. “Kiss me,” Obito said, the words directed at Kakashi.

“You just outed her jealousy and you want to mess with her?” Kakashi clearly didn’t approve, but Obito was having too much fun. Obito grabbed Kakashi by the front of his cloak and dragged him into a rough kiss punctuated by the swift arrival of killing intent that had Kana punching Obito in his left thigh. Obito cursed and pulled away, leaving her to glare at him. “I think you deserved that.”

“Happy birthday, Kakashi. He’s all yours.”

Kana scowled, getting to her feet to collect her sandals. Kakashi tried touching her and she swung at him, her fist narrowly missing his jaw. She didn’t bother putting her sandals on. She collected them, double checked that she had her money, and left, slamming the door behind her. She fought killing intent as she made her way downstairs. At the door to the hotel, she slipped her sandals back on and marched into the chilly night air. They didn’t follow her, which only made her angrier. Her mind told her they were probably fucking already, that her presence simply kept them from wanting one another. Her killing intent chased the civilians away and put the former shinobi on alert. She didn’t know if she meant to stop and collect herself or simply march right out of the village, but the sight of Muku temporarily distracted her. An older man had approached him, with a bald head and a smooth-shaven face. Muku clearly didn’t appreciate it when the man touched him, but Muku let the exchange continue. And it made Kana feel that she finally had a good direction for her anger. Muku had to behave a certain way to obtain clients; she could behave any way she wanted. She politely tapped the tall, muscular man on his shoulder, and when he turned his head, she punched him in the face, breaking his nose. People gasped and one woman screamed, but the man waved off the help slowly arriving for him. He cradled his nose and glared at her as he walked away. Maybe it was forward of her, but she’d been so certain that he was a good victim.

“Now I won’t be getting any more business tonight,” Muku frowned, looking down at the blood on the concrete. Her shoulders slumped, her fight against her killing intent evaporating with its loss. She’d misunderstood, or maybe she should have simply let the whole thing play out until the end. “Kakashi mentioned you. He said you were another prodigy. Does Akatsuki collect them?” He looked down at the blood on his blue kimono, still looking unhappy about her intervention.

“I’m sorry about interrupting whatever the hell that was taking place.” She wasn’t happy to apologize, but she’d ruined his income for the evening. She purposely dodged his question, knowing that Kakashi hadn’t given anything away about the organization. Muku looked down the length of the street and made a noise. “Do you really intend to come with us?” She shook her hand because she hadn’t formed her fist properly and hitting the man had really hurt her too. Maybe she deserved that.

“Maybe. Kusagakure has been on the decline for too long. Most shinobi are former shinobi now, and they can’t find work. A lot of people that you see working in the pleasure district are former shinobi and kunoichi. The people enjoying the pleasure district are typically foreigners or rich merchants.”

“Why didn’t you abandon this place?”

“Ryuzetsu. We were collecting enough money to leave together, but she was taken. I’ve searched everywhere, but I can’t find her. All I have is that the man frequents the pleasure district around the middle of the month, his killing intent is unlike no other, and people tend to disappear when he’s around.” For the first time, she saw within his gray eyes that reminded her that he was alive, that he had a variety of emotions, that his stoic expression came with hidden depths. It was a variation of a spark she’d seen at that teahouse. It brought up memories of white pear tea. He loved Ryuzetsu. Kana regretted leaving the hotel room. She didn’t know how to handle the situation. “I just can’t bring myself to leave without her.”

“Here,” she relented, handing him the money Kakashi had likely already paid him. He looked down at the money in his hand, then his brows furrowed. “No, I’m not interested in sleeping with you. It’s for costing you your clients. It’s not a lot, but I’m not made of money.” He closed his hand around the money, then he nodded. She saw the apathy he wore like a second skin slither back into place, but she’d already seen his true emotions. She reached out with her chakra and found Kakashi and Obito were still waiting for her at the hotel. She didn’t know how she felt about that, so she ignored her feelings altogether. They both wore apathy that night. “Can I buy you a drink?”

Chapter Text

Sulking at the bar of a dimly lit izakaya, Kana tried to busy herself playing with the tiny umbrella that came from her mixed drink. Muku had left her over an hour ago, saying that he needed to return to his spot, so she had no one for company. When the alcohol became too much, she switched to water, and that glass went untouched. Eventually, she tired of the umbrella and tossed the broken thing into the remains of her mixed drink, which the bartender quickly removed from sight. In the background, the music was annoying, and did nothing to improve her mood. When she saw gray hair, she looked to her right, but she didn't recognize the man. With slicked back hair and a devilish smirk, he looked like he frequented the nightlife searching for easy women. She hummed, then she offered him her hand and he kissed it. He quickly confirmed her suspicion, but he didn't stop at the back of her hand. He licked over the pulse point at her wrist and bit down, though his teeth didn't puncture her skin. She could recognize some of the thrill in his eyes. He thought he could take a drunk woman home and wreck her, then likely dump her out the front door when he was done. She could appreciate an experienced man on the hunt. But he was either extremely arrogant or extremely uninformed. She wasn't prey.

"What's with your cloak? Are you a groupie or something?" She couldn't help the laugh that escaped. Even though she laughed at him, he didn't seem bothered by the fact. He hadn't let go of her hand, and she was very aware of it. "Let me buy you a drink?" She glanced at her glass of water, considered her level of sobriety, and gave in. He ordered her something that tasted like watermelon, which wasn't bad. He got himself a whiskey sour. "I haven't seen you around," he said, leaning toward her so they could converse over the sound of the music pouring from the speakers.

"Maybe you haven't been looking," she shrugged, her dismissive response obviously misunderstood for flirtation. He grinned at her and her gaze dropped from his shiny teeth to the obvious opening in his cloak. He wore a chain around his neck with an odd amulet at the end. When she reached for it, he let her get close, but not close enough to touch it. The triple-bladed scythe on his back made a noise with his quick movement to stop her hand. She couldn't forget that he was a shinobi.

"Do you want to hear about our savior?" His attitude changed, his interest in her spiking the moment he identified her curiosity. She wondered if he was another religious zealot rolling in sin. "I've been trying to convert people, but they never survive the ritual. I guess that's what happens when you impale them though. It's a real fucking shame, beautiful." He grinned at her again and she saw something deadly in his purple eyes. She focused on his chakra immediately and he tugged on her wrist, pulling her right off her stool and into his lap. "So I was right. You're a fucking kunoichi. This is too good! Two sacrifices in one night for Jashin-sama!" He licked her neck and that sobered her up enough to break her glass and jab the sharpened remains into his throat. She jumped down and swung at him with her right fist, but he blocked her with one hand and pried the glass from his throat with the other.

The people in the izakaya scrambled for the exit, while the bartender took shelter behind the bar. She wiped at her neck, her eyes narrowed, while he cackled at her attempt to kill him. The blood flowing from his throat should have been the last of him, but he was still standing, as if she hadn't delivered a killing blow. Something was wrong, and she wasn't sober. It wasn't going to be a fatal mistake. There was no room in the small bar, but he made room with a single swipe of his scythe. She bent backwards to avoid a decapitating blow, but he was quick to strike again. There was no clear strategy, just him trying to kill her with a single blow. For defense, she had some kunai that his scythe quickly destroyed. The weapon she needed, her wakizashi, was at the hotel, where it couldn't help her. Frustrated with dodging, she turned to her sharingan. Her focus wasn't there to use her mangekyou properly, but she still tried. Too much yin chakra had him stalling, her genjutsu strong but fading. She gritted her teeth, glanced at the door, and tried to circle around him. The last genjutsu wore off too fast. She blocked his scythe with a stool from the bar, but he easily destroyed all five of them.

"I didn't take you for being such a coward."

"Because attacking drunk women is something to be proud of, you fucking creep."

"For that, your death will be slow and painful!"

The scythe caught her in the stomach, ripping right through her cloak and her romper. He laughed at his hit and pulled back, leaving an ugly jagged wound behind. She pressed her palms over her gut to apply pressure and slow the bleeding. One leg buckled so she fell to one knee. As he approached her, she squinted at him. He had the scythe to his mouth, his tongue out to taste her blood, but killing intent flooded the small bar. Kana choked on an inhale, her breath stolen in one quick moment. The man's hand shook, the scythe pulled away from his mouth before it was wrenched away from him entirely. Kakashi looked back at her and she saw what it took to be an ANBU captain in his hard gaze. He grabbed the man by the front of his neck and lifted him from the floor, then slammed him into the far wall, sending pictures and paintings crashing to the floor. Kakashi choked the man until he should have lost consciousness, then dropped him to the floor. When he made a move toward his scythe, Kakashi cut off his arm at the bicep. That stopped him. Her hands shook as Kakashi approached her, her eyes wide at his display.

"Let's go," Kakashi swept her into his arms and she tried not to look down at her wound, because she was sure she would lose control and vomit. The pain was excruciating, seeming to spread in every direction from her stomach. She prayed it was something Obito could fix, because she decided she wasn't ready to die yet. How many times would she face that same reality? "Kana, stay with me," Kakashi spoke, his tone firm. The tone had her tensing and she screamed in pain. She didn't recall anything from the street to the hotel room. She focused on him lying her down on the bed. "It was one of them. I need to go back and remove her blood."

Kakashi patted Obito’s shoulder, then he was gone and it was Obito trying to get her to stop screaming. He had to stop healing her to put up silencing seals because people began beating on their door and their walls. He healed the jagged wound to the best of his ability, then he sat down on the bedside and buried his face in his hands. Even though the wound was healed, her nerves told her it still existed. He wasn't able to heal it all. It would take time. When the worst of the pain had passed, her screaming faded away, leaving her throat feeling raw. The alcohol had cut down on some of the pain. She knew that. Kakashi returned with the man bound and gagged, and he tossed the scythe into the closet. Obito took one look at the man and slammed his fist into the man's face, leaving a crooked jaw behind. That injury brought new life to the man, where he complained into his gag and thrashed around on the floor. Without missing a beat, Kakashi knocked him over the head, and the man gave up struggling and complaining. The room became too quiet.

"The religion originates in a rural community in northern Hot Water. There's a lot that I don't know about it. I didn't think the Jashinists had spread so far. I was tracking him because he was supposed to be Kakuzu’s new partner, but I stopped in the Land of Fire to meet up with you. I should have kept tracking him. This was my fault." Obito clearly hated himself over something he couldn't have changed. She and Kakashi had wanted him present, even if it had meant abandoning a mission. Kakashi sat down on her other side and examined her stomach.

"There's no scar." Kakashi didn't touch her, which she appreciated. He looked over at Obito, clearly impressed.

"I tried." Kana didn't want to look at her stomach. She looked between them, trying to gather herself enough to speak to them, but she gave up and licked her dry lips. She touched Obito’s back and that attracted their attention. Right then, she couldn't manage much else. "His name is Hidan. He's a former shinobi of Yugakure. He ingests a target's blood and inflicts wounds on himself that are mirrored on the target. It's different. He's not very smart, but he's immortal. He can afford to mess up. Kakuzu should be able to reattach his arm, unless you want us to dismember him and burn him alive." The offer brought soft laughter from her, which put both men at ease. Hidan didn't appreciate the suggestion, but the man quieted when Kakashi’s hand went to his tanto.

"You look nice when you're pissed off, Kakashi," she finally spoke, turning her head to meet his gaze. He gave her a flat, unimpressed look, because she managed to focus on that single moment. "I drank too much. It's what I get for overindulging. I should have come back to the room. I don't blame either of you. It was pretty sexy when you broke his jaw though." Her sincerity earned her an eye roll from Obito, but her willingness to speak to them proved she didn't hold anything against them. She leaned back on her elbows so she could catch a glimpse of Hidan. He grinned at her, so she used her mangekyou to knock him out, hopefully for the remainder of their time in Kusagakure.

"Do you want to shower? You're covered in blood," Kakashi noted, an unspoken complaint about her blood all over their bed. She closed her eyes to gather the strength needed to move, but he placed a hand on her back and took one of her hands, then he helped her sit up the rest of the way.

"Yeah. Can someone get us another mattress or a couple of futons? I really wrecked the bed," she frowned, slowly getting to her feet. She was too proud to ask for help. Kakashi shoved a pill between her lips and kept a palm over her mouth until she swallowed. The pill was bitter but familiar. He'd thought of the blood she'd lost. "Can someone also toss that dick in the closet? I'd rather share the room with his scythe."

"She's bossy, so she's fine," Obito muttered, moving to drag Hidan toward the closet. Kakashi sighed at the words, then he nudged a kiss to her temple and left to deal with the mattress issue. "Do you need help?" Obito shoved Hidan into the closet and removed the man's scythe. He didn't look at her when he asked, so he missed her soft expression. By the time he looked at her, she had wrinkled her nose. "It's not an offer for shower sex."

"I never said it was! I'll be fine. Probably. I'll figure it out," she shrugged, closing herself into the bathroom.

Under the overhead light, she removed her cloak and unzipped her romper to examine the aftermath of her drunken fight. Just as Kakashi had said, she had no scar from the injury, only the burning pain where Obito had been unable to fully heal her. She placed a palm over her stomach and frowned. She still recalled her pregnancy, and when the memory surfaced, she stuffed all of her thoughts aside to focus on heating up the shower. No one bothered her as she showered, and her refusal to think about anything even remotely traumatic left her with thoughts of how the water felt or how the hotel soap reminded her of tart cherries. When she emerged from the bathroom, she had a towel secured around herself and she went right to rooting for clothes. Two futons were on the floor, so she'd had to step over Kakashi's legs, where he'd fallen asleep waiting on her. Obito was wide awake, looking out at the rain slowly soaking the streets. It reminded her of Amegakure. She turned her back to him as she dressed in her shorts and shirt, then she went up behind him and wrapped her arms around his midsection, her head going to rest against him.

"He saved my life tonight. You sent him."

"I would have killed Hidan. Kakashi is a better man than I am."

"He's scary, when he wants to be."

"Yes, he is."

Chapter Text

Just two hours outside of Kusagakure, Hidan wrestled the gag from his mouth and proceeded to cuss them out and label them as blasphemous for preventing him from fulfilling his sacrifice to Jashin. Kakashi continued dragging him along by the rope tied around his waist, completely ignoring his raging, while Kana massaged her temples to stave off the beginning of a terrible headache. To get moments of silence, Kana alternated slapping him for every curse word to thrusting him into torturous genjutsu that did nothing to shake the fool. Before they reached the border of the Land of Rain, she wanted him dead. He told her to calm her tits, so she kneed him in the balls and struck him over the back of his head with the hilt of her sword. After that, Kakashi made her walk in front so she'd stop hitting the man. She hated Obito for assigning the escort mission to them. She'd hoped to follow up on the Box of Ultimate Bliss, but Obito had made an agreement with Muku to find Ryuzetsu in exchange for assistance locating and opening the box. He'd taken the better mission for himself.

"How much fucking longer? I have to piss!"

"Piss in your pants, you piece of shit."

"You looked so good bleeding to death, bitch."

"One more word out of you and I'm cutting your dick off and shoving it down your throat."

Hidan shut his mouth, but he glared at the back of her head with an intensity meant to set her aflame. Kakashi made her stop so Hidan could disappear behind a bush to piss, and she huffed as she waited for the inevitable moment when Hidan escaped the ropes binding him. After a few minutes of silence, Kakashi yanked on the rope around Hidan's waist and dragged him back to the path, then they journeyed into Rain. The whole trip lasted from early in the morning to late afternoon. Her favorite part was when Hidan's slicked back hair was drenched and plastered to his head. While the rain soaked him, she and Kakashi hid beneath umbrellas. Had their first meeting gone better, she might have befriended someone like Hidan. They both cursed too much, and his religion required sacrifices, which seemed easy enough to complete. She didn't want to ask too many questions about Jashinism, because he was too passionate about the subject.

"Thank you," she finally said, addressing Kakashi. He hummed, the inflection meaning he questioned her random thanks. Kana slowed so she walked beside him. They didn't have the privacy she wanted, but she'd never thanked him for saving her life. "At the izakaya. You saved my life, and I never thanked you. This is rare, so treasure this moment." He chuckled at the words and she smiled at him, content with the way things were between them, even with the addition of Hidan. She patted his shoulder, then she reclaimed her spot at point, where she led the way into Amegakure.

"Once I'm free, I'm sacrificing you to Jashin," Hidan said, once they'd crossed the village limits. Kakashi had learned how to ignore him, but his annoying voice and his need to point out the obvious had gotten old. "I'll draw it out nice and slow, and Jashin will forgive me for not killing you non-believers last night."

"If you don't stop dragging your feet, you're going to know exactly what it feels like to be a sacrifice," Kana frowned, going behind him to shove him along.

He pivoted on his heel and tried to kick her in her side but she blocked with her umbrella. Kakashi tightened his hold on the rope, but Hidan used his teeth to loosen the rope around his wrists. They had a simple escort mission, and he had to ruin it with his actions. Hidan tried to grab his scythe from Kakashi, but Kakashi kept the man at a distance with a quick thrust of his tanto. Hidan had no choice but to pull back. Kana held her hand out to Kakashi, and he arched a brow at her. She motioned to the scythe and he shook his head, so she motioned to it a second time.

"I want to show him what sober Kana can do to him, and that requires the return of his scythe. You can cooperate, or I can cast a genjutsu on you. Your choice, Kakashi."

"He almost killed you."

"I'm very aware of this fact."

Kana felt movement from the tower and her shoulders fell. She settled for slapping Hidan in the face, since they had no time for a rematch. Kakuzu and Konan approached them, neither of them reacting to the scene. While Kana didn't get the chance to fight Hidan, Kakuzu did. She felt one of Kakuzu’s hearts die, the sudden loss cutting off vital chakra flow. There was a moment where the men simply stared at one another. Hidan blocked black threads meant to impale him and went to strike himself again. With the limited space on the narrow streets, there wasn't room for a decent spar. Konan motioned for her to step in, so she severed Hidan's arm again, choosing his remaining, dominant side. He shouted at her and waved the remains of his arm around as Kakuzu calmly swept up his arm and hit him in the back of the head with it. The two deserved one another. To try and break even, she went to cut one of his legs off, but Kakashi caught her around the waist and pulled her back against his chest. Hidan joining Akatsuki didn't make them comrades, not in her book. As soon as Akatsuki served its purpose, she would burn him alive.

"Maybe we'll get a chance for a rematch another time, bitch." Hidan grinned at her as she gave a half-hearted attempt to break away from Kakashi. After a huff, she went limp against him and settled for glaring at Hidan. She threw a scroll that hit him between the eyes and he yelled a string of obscenities into the night.

"It's his other arm. Have fun playing doctor," Kana said, the words directed at Kakuzu. The man closed his eyes and she knew he was searching for strength, because he recovered the scroll from the ground and knocked it against Hidan's head. As they departed, she heard Hidan ask if they were supposed to be in some kind of band. "He's an imbecile. I give him forty-eight hours."

"Hm. He left willingly when he glimpsed part of Kakuzu’s abilities. I think they'll make a good pair. When he rips Hidan apart, he can just sew him back together again. That's handy," Kakashi noted, glancing back at their retreating forms. Kana grunted in response and crossed her arms over her chest. When the rain stopped hitting her, she looked up and saw Kakashi holding his umbrella over them. "Obito talked to me about your eyesight." She instantly hated the subject and refused to respond. She didn't want him pushing her into claiming her brother's eyes. "You can't avoid the conversation forever, Kana. What happened in the izakaya wasn't all attributed to the alcohol. How well could you see? Your eyes were bleeding, so I know you used your mangekyou more than once on him."

"Did Obito put you up to this?"

"How bad is it?"

"I'm fucking fine, Kakashi. Drop it."

Chapter Text

Oshino had no population, just a small sea of traditional homes and a maze of narrow streets. At the founding, Oshino had a population in the thousands, but time had chipped away at the numbers, until only six hundred remained. And in one night, everyone had vanished. Homes still had lights on and fridges contained rotten food, as if six hundred people had simply stepped out for a stroll and never returned. Three hidden villages had failed to uncover the truth behind the disappearances, which led a collection of loved ones to reach out to Akatsuki for assistance. Kakashi had accepted the mission that no one else had wanted, and they'd spent days trying to track down a proverbial paper town. He enjoyed mysteries, and Kana had given in to his mounting curiosity. But there was nothing to uncover, no clues in expired milk and overgrown gardens, just silence and the chilly northern wind.

"None of these homes have signs of forced entry. There's nothing out of place. This really is quite the mystery." They stopped in the center of town, where a few streets met, and Kakashi surveyed the area once more. The village didn't have any chakra signatures; the whole place was void of life. All she could pick up was nature chakra, as if the world were breathing. "Most possibilities would leave corpses behind, unless they were all collected for slavery, which seems highly unlikely. I don't see why they would need infants, and we found a few cribs. This far north, in the dead of winter, you would usually see heavy snow accumulation. That would deter outsiders."

"How can six hundred people just vanish, Kakashi? The slave trade couldn't collect six hundred people at once. And we didn't find any signs of fighting throughout the village. This mission pays well, but it's fucking impossible. There's nothing to uncover," she frowned, kicking a rock down one of the streets. He hummed in response, clearly in agreement. She tried sensing chakra again, but she couldn't pick up any people, just like the last twenty times she'd checked. "This nation has no name. Why is that?"

"Mm. Many years ago, this land was ruled by the now extinct Kaguya clan. They never named it. Land meant nothing to them. They thrived in war, just for the sake of war. They perished when they moved against Kirigakure. It was genocide. This nation was abandoned and most people believe that it's cursed. There are two other villages in the same situation." He shrugged his shoulders, as if his summary of events meant little to him. She nodded, because she'd never heard of the clan. It wasn't taught in Konoha, likely because of superstition. "What else can you sense in the surrounding area?"

"The abundant nature chakra in the surrounding forest. That's it. Further north is the Mountain's Graveyard. I avoid exploring that area. Obito doesn't want us involved in his super secret bullshit. That's the closest inhabited area."

"Inhabited? I thought that was nothing but the remains of dragons."

"It's not a good place. The signatures are always stationary. It's hard to explain. They feel stagnant or dormant, where there's no circulation of chakra, despite its presence. It makes my skin crawl."

"If you had to put a number on them?" She stared at him without really seeing him, her focus on feeling for a rough estimate. "If it's taking you this long, that's a lot of signatures. I've never heard anything about an abundance of people in this nation. Every village is relatively small." Kana gave up counting and massaged her right temple to fight off the stabbing pain from opening her senses up to so many signatures. It reminded her of her early days in the third war, where she was tasked with monitoring enemy forces.

"I'd guess about seventy-five thousand, but that’s a rough estimate," she admitted, earning a frown from him. He turned north, as if he could see across the nation to the graveyard. "Do you think they're connected? It's a good distance to travel in nine hours. That's the time frame for the disappearances."

Kakashi looked around the area, focusing on the streets that met in the center of the village. She could tell that he didn't have an answer to her question. Faced with leaving the village and venturing to the Mountain's Graveyard, she didn't point out the choice, or the fact that her curiosity encouraged her to defy Obito’s warning and explore the area anyway. Kakashi rubbed the back of his head, then he met her eyes. He wanted to explore the graveyard. She could tell by looking at him. Instead of departing, they searched the village once more, and noticed overturned earth, as if someone had used earth release in a village full of civilians. To make sure no one had been buried, she and Kakashi used earth waves to bring forth anything buried in the dirt, but nothing surfaced. It was another dead end.

"Where is Obito right now?" She could tell his patience had worn thin, because he had clearly given up on uncovering any clues. As she felt for Obito’s chakra, she closed her eyes and tried to map out the land between them. He was south of them, where the rain felt like droplets of chakra. He was in Amegakure. "We can get to the graveyard before nightfall, if we leave now. But with Obito being a better sensor, there's a possibility that he might catch us. My guess is that he wouldn't be happy to see us."

"Let's explore the two other villages first. We can stay in one of them and head to the graveyard first thing in the morning."

"It could be ghosts or demons. Maybe it's a mythical creature on a rampage."

"I hate you. That's impossible. Ghosts and demons don't exist."

"That we know of," he added, clearly teasing her. She pinched his side and he chuckled, easily swatting her hand aside so she couldn't do it again. "Maybe we should stop by a temple and retrieve a priest." She grabbed his upper arm and began dragging him towards the village entrance as he tried to explain about exorcisms and sacrifices that reminded her too much of Hidan. She considered the possibility of ghosts or demons, but she couldn't imagine them kidnapping six hundred people. Kakashi was just fucking with her.

The villages they investigated had the same overturned earth piles, the only obvious disturbances in the villages. Like Oshino, the homes looked as if the villagers had stepped away for a moment; unlike Oshino, the third village, Hakaito, had a series of footprints where snowmelt had turned the roads muddy. Kana examined them, but they disappeared at the edge of a hole that seemed to have a large drop. The footprints looked normal. That was the problem. Kana looked up at Kakashi and caught him summoning Pakkun. She stood and wiped her hands together to free them of dirt. She hadn't seen Pakkun in a while. Kakashi often summoned his hounds for quality time and training. When Pakkun appeared, the dog looked up at them, then down at the hole in front of them.

"You don't expect me to go down there, do you? I won't let you touch my paw," Pakkun announced, looking up at them. Kana snorted, while Kakashi simply sighed at the hound. "It smells like mud," Pakkun said, trying to communicate that he thought his mission was silly. Still, he smelled the hole and sat down. "There's a scent, but I haven't smelled it before. The footprints are from the ones who went down this hole. I can track it around the village, but it disappears underground." Pakkun lightly patted the ground with a paw and checked the hole once more.

"Do you still have that flashlight?" Kana peered down the hole, considering dropping a light down the hole to judge the depth. Kakashi went through his belongings and produced a flashlight, so she turned it on and bent down. Shining the light into the hole did nothing. For a moment, she wondered if it was bottomless. "I'll go down there if we need to. I'd need you to widen it, if so."

She dropped the flashlight down the hole and they watched it fall, the light slowly fading into darkness. The hole was deeper than they'd thought, but she still wanted to take the risk. Frowning, she tossed a palm-sized rock down the hole and listened for it to connect with earth. The sound was faint, as if the hole went right to the earth’s core. There were more holes in Hakaito, some of them coming from beneath concrete, and one originating in a home’s pantry. The summoning wouldn’t last forever, so she bit down on her lower lip and considered taking Pakkun down with her. She shoved the thought aside in favor of allowing him to scout the village. To improve their chances of success, Kakashi summoned the remainder of his hounds and went off with them, leaving her to think. There was a chance that the odd signatures in the graveyard had nothing to do with their mission. Kana knew exactly what would happen if Obito caught them exploring there after he’d already warned her to mind her own business. Curiosity told her to throw caution aside, but she recalled the frigid waters when he’d let her fall through the ice. While Kakashi and his summons tracked the ones responsible, she went in search of rope and another flashlight. There was no harm in investigating the depths of the hole. She saved thoughts of the graveyard for another time.

After locating a length of strong rope, she had trouble finding another flashlight. None of the homes she searched had a flashlight, but they were loaded with scented and unscented candles. In the last house, she found a small flashlight that would do well at close range. It had to work. When she returned to the hole, the summons were gone, except for Pakkun, who stared down the dark hole. She didn’t want to take the dog on a dangerous journey to an unknown destination, but she strongly believed the hole led into a series of tunnels connecting all of the holes together. She wondered if following them would take her to the graveyard, but she told herself to forget the graveyard. They were losing daylight.

“I want to take Pakkun with me,” she said, looking at the unimpressed pug. Kakashi clearly didn’t want to endanger them, but he pressed his lips together and sighed through his nose. She rested a hand on his shoulder and he looked at her again. “As long as you don’t drop me, we’ll be fine. I won’t let anything happen to Pakkun. I think all of these holes connect and I want to know where they’re going.” She offered him the end of the rope, the other end secured around her waist. She tested her flashlight by shining it in his face and he finally nodded. He double checked her rope, tugging on it a few times to be sure, then he passed off Pakkun. The little dog settled on her right shoulder. “When you feel my chakra, stop. Take it slow,” she reminded him, already standing before the hole. Without a word, Kakashi used earth release to widen the opening, then she jumped down and she felt the rope pull as he adjusted to holding her weight. Little by little, he lowered her.

“Boss thinks it’s the graveyard. I’d say the scent smells old, like the person was exhumed. Wait. I smell water,” Pakkun said, his last words alerting her of something she hadn’t noticed. She couldn’t hear any water below them, but the petrichor Pakkun picked up on alerted them that there was water present. They didn’t need to go further to know that there was a system of tunnels, but Kana didn’t signal Kakashi to stop. "Was it your idea to leave Konoha?"

"You aren't interrogating me just because we're confined here."

"He had a girlfriend who gave good belly rubs and friends who cared about him."

"It was a shitty place and he's better off without it. He has everything he needs in Akatsuki."

"If we run into anyone, I'm playing dead."

"Fuck you," Kana scowled, reaching up to flick one of his ears. He nibbled on her finger and she huffed at him. She swore the dog hated her, but Kakashi seemed convinced that Pakkun showed his love in other ways. He refused to listen to her, during missions and outside of missions, and he liked to nibble on her fingers for fun. He was an incredibly intelligent summon, so she was sure he knew what he was doing. "Wait." Kana's thoughts came to a halt and she communicated the same command with a pulse of her chakra. Pakkun leaned forward to sniff at a tunnel extending from the hole.

"It's the same scent in multiple places. There's another tunnel farther down," Pakkun announced, pointing with one of his front paws. She looked up at the fading light of day, then she signaled for Kakashi to lower them once more. "The tunnel splits off and curves." Pakkun jumped from her shoulder and landed in mud, but he didn't seem to care. She didn't have room on the rope to explore, so she stood at the bottom and counted the tunnels, all of them varying in size. "I found a flashlight." Pakkun collected it in his mouth and dropped it into her outstretched hand.

"Dead," she sighed, giving the flashlight a few shakes to be sure. The small flashlight she did have didn't help her, but she still shined it down the tunnels. All of them required her crawling, so she slowly lowered the flashlight and glanced up, as if she would see Kakashi checking on them. "If you explore one of these tunnels for me, I'll rub your belly."

"You're lying," Pakkun said, staring at her.

She scowled at him and tried to nudge him down one of the tunnels, but he started nibbling her fingers a little too hard, so she gave up. She wanted to argue with him, but a strong breeze flew through one of the tunnels and she felt an abnormality she couldn't describe. Pakkun tensed, so she grabbed him and signaled for Kakashi to pull them up. The warning bells in her head told her not to look down, to keep her head angled up. Pakkun kept looking down, his body still tense, paws and nails digging into her cloak, something she felt on her skin. She saw a flash of color that stood out with her sharingan, and then it was gone, replaced by a multitude of odd signatures that she traced back to the graveyard. When her chakra met Obito’s, she sensed his killing intent and cut off sensing altogether. He'd left Amegakure, and he knew she was snooping. Cursing under her breath, she started using the sides of the tunnel to ascend faster. Pakkun warned her that they were being followed, but she had no space to fight. Someone grabbed her ankle, so she pulled back and stomped on the person.

"I'm going to seal this tunnel off and buy us some time," Kana hurriedly explained, already going through the hand seals for an earth wall. It bought them a few minutes, but their pursuers broke through the earth wall. She had to kick a few more times before she started making numerous earth walls to project from the side and seal off the tunnel. The confined space and the inability to get away had her anxiety soaring. She had a new hatred for claustrophobia. "I don't want to know what happened to these people," Kana hissed, kicking another one away from her. The rope made a noise that terrified her, as if it meant to break under the constant weight of them trying to pull her down.

A hand caught her shoulder, and an arm wrapped around her waist. Pakkun bit down on the hand, sharp teeth and strict training telling him to sever fingers, if he couldn't sever the hand. Kana freed a kunai and started stabbing the person's forearm, but there was no blood. The person didn't bleed. The remaining light of twilight revealed white skin, and that was the only glimpse she got before Kakashi grabbed her outstretched hands and freed them from the hole. Pakkun spit out several white digits that squirmed around, so Kakashi scooped them up and threw them back down the hole. He sealed the tunnel with earth release that extended well below the surface, then he dropped onto the ground beside them. Pakkun went to report, while Kana turned onto her back to see the purple sky overhead.

"These things originate in the graveyard. I don't know why they're tunneling into these villages, but I'm sure Obito knows about it. He'll visit sometime, since he's in the graveyard right now. He's pissed," Kana frowned, recalling the killing intent. She covered her face with her hands for a few minutes, then she sat up and untied the rope knotted around her waist. Her hands still shook from the adrenaline rushing through her system. When she looked over at Kakashi, she caught him exchanging quiet words with Pakkun, then she watched the dog disappear with a puff of smoke. Kakashi met her gaze.

"Are you alright? Your hands are shaking."

"I think I'm claustrophobic now. Other than that, I'm fine."

Warm embers approached the edge of the village, the chakra tightly controlled to mask killing intent. Faced with encountering Obito in a bad mood, Kana considered going back into the hole and praying he would assume she was dead. Obito’s chakra was so powerful that Kakashi soon picked up on the man's presence and he reached out to lightly squeeze her thigh. They were together to weather the storm.

Chapter Text

Kana and Kakashi sat on the floral-print couch, while Obito dropped onto the coffee table, looking ready to scold them and interrogate them, a nice combination to wear on the shaken remnants of Kana's nerves. With Obito’s focus almost entirely on her, he correctly assumed that her focus and suspicion had been centered on the graveyard, thereby defying his command to leave the area unexplored. Kakashi cleared his throat, the only noise in the empty home. At one time, a family had inhabited the home; family photos on the wall leading up to the second floor told them that it had been a family of four. She could imagine the sound of the children's laughter, and that thought brought up a string of thoughts about what her life would have been like if the baby had survived. She stuffed those thoughts down, because they'd never addressed how they truly felt, not as a group, so she avoided everything related to the unnamed child she'd lost. Obito’s narrowed eye told her that he'd finally calmed down enough to use his words. His chakra had slowed, no longer racing through his network. She wondered if he would overlook their transgression. The look in his visible eye said all she needed to know. He was still angry.

"I told you to leave the graveyard alone."

"In our defense, we never agreed to it; therefore, we misunderstood?"

"Is that a question or a statement, Kakashi?"

"Both?"

"Look," Kana interrupted, drawing the attention back to herself, "we traced the chakra back to the graveyard. That's all. We weren't going to investigate without telling you." She lied to him, knowing she was better than Kakashi. Obito pressed a hand to the front of his mask and his other hand to the strap at the back, then he allowed them to see his unimpressed expression. He didn't believe her, because he knew her too well. She frowned and averted her eyes. "Fine. We considered going to investigate. Tch. We were going to make sure you weren't there and break in. Happy?"

"I may not be a decent liar, but I wouldn't have buckled under the pressure," Kakashi said, shrugging his shoulders at the glare she shot him. Obito massaged his right temple, still silent after her confession. "We tracked them to the graveyard. This is the third village they've tunneled through. We think they're responsible for the disappearances. Unless you have a better explanation." Obito frowned and Kana felt him searching for chakra signatures in the abandoned village. Right then, they were the only ones within the place.

"You're sure the signatures originated in the graveyard?" The chakra signature around his heart pulsed and she gasped at the feeling emanating from the seal. He placed a hand over his chest and rubbed at the spot, so he'd felt it too. She didn't need to point out the fact that it was dangerous. "They shouldn't have moved," he mumbled, brows furrowed. She felt when he stopped sensing, and the seal seemed to fall dormant.

"What the fuck is going on, Obito? There's a large number of signatures there. One of them tried to drag me down." Obito still looked confused, clearly unable to grasp the fact that they'd actually left the graveyard. Kana flicked his forehead and he narrowed his eyes at her. "Focus."

"It's an army, for when the villages refuse to cooperate. They’re supposed to answer to me,” Obito trailed off, reaching out for them again. She didn’t sense any of them moving around in the graveyard, nor in the surrounding lands. Their lack of movement made her wonder if she’d imagined the whole thing. “It might have to do with the box,” Obito frowned, his lips twisted as he tried to think of some other explanation. She’d seen the white skin reminiscent of Zetsu. It made her wonder if the Zetsu in the organization was simply one of many. But none of them reminded her of Black Zetsu. Maybe he was unique. “I linked it to the statue and the chakra opened the box. Nothing happened, nothing that I noticed, at least. The box was empty. I assumed it had been a waste of time. The story of the box dates back to the Sage. You opened the box, the box took in people, and they were turned to allies. I thought I could find use for it, but when I sacrificed Muku, the box closed.” Kakashi frowned at the mention of his friend being sealed into the box, while Kana simply placed a hand over her face. His words didn’t surprise her, not when he had something he wanted within his reach. “These people could be in the box. It’s possible.”

“That doesn’t explain the things lurking in the tunnels burrowed beneath the villages. I’m telling you they moved.”

“I’m telling you they couldn’t have moved.”

“Would it hurt to take a look at them? Is the box also at the graveyard?” Kakashi interrupted them before Kana could shout at Obito, instigating a fight she meant to win. Obito didn’t like the idea. He made a face at the question, still reluctant to let them into his secret world. Kana touched his right knee, hoping that her small show of affection would sway his opinion. He saw right through her and shoved her hand off of himself. “Do you really want to argue all night?” He saw reason when Kana saw an opportunity to throw curse words and insults. Obito ran a hand through his short hair, buying himself time to think. He just didn’t trust them enough, and that hurt. “You have to let us in if you expect us to help you take over the world. You aren’t on your own anymore.”

“Save the world,” Obito automatically corrected, still torn on the decision. Kakashi made a vague hand motion to dismiss the words, since they disagreed on the true meaning of the plan. Kana felt the familiar drop in her stomach that signaled Zetsu’s appearance. It took Obito a moment to focus on the village around them, but he felt the same thing. He looked down at the hardwood floor, where they sensed the chakra buried in the earth. “His specialty is espionage. He obeys me, and that blind loyalty is what I need. I still don’t want him to know about you, whatever the hell this is,” Obito said, his voice low. Kana stared at the floor beneath her feet, then she reached out with her chakra in an attempt to alert Zetsu that they’d discovered his presence. When their chakra met, Zetsu left. Obito stared into space for a moment, clearly tracking the plant man as he left the village.

“You don’t trust anyone, do you?” Kana couldn’t help herself. She wondered if she fully trusted them, if she’d moved beyond that mind frame to place her trust in others. Her mind told her that she hadn’t, that she still believed she could only truly rely on herself.

“My trust has been misplaced. I learned my lesson.”

“We’re tired of you hiding shit from us. Cough up the truth and share what you know, Obito.”

“I never questioned Madara. I agreed with his plans for the future. I did everything he wanted. The White Zetsu army was given to me by him. They’ve never moved. I haven’t checked on them in years, because they were present and hibernating since the reign of the Shodaime. If they’ve been moving, they’ve been going behind my back.” Obito ran his hands over his face, unintelligible words spoken into his palms. When he lowered his hands, he looked between them, as if he could find answers in their expressions. “If I let you into the underground, there’s no turning back. If you think of leaving, I’ll kill you, do you understand me?” Kakashi looked at her, clearly waiting for her to consult with him about their stance on the matter. Obito gave them time, where they simply stared at one another. Kana didn’t know what Kakashi hoped to find in her onyx eyes.

“There’s really no turning back,” Kakashi replied, shrugging his shoulders. “I’m already in this far. I chose you two over the village that housed my clan for three generations. I chose you two over my sensei’s only child. I make bad decisions daily. And here I am, still choosing you.” The words were meant as a reassurance, but they made Kana feel a certain way, as if she blamed herself for tainting him. She didn’t expect him to be so forward. He’d come to a decision, and she hadn’t, because she knew Obito would really kill them. “Kana?” Neither of them looked surprised by her silence. She’d parted from the organization before, and there was a chance they would have another explosive argument that ended with her packing her shit and leaving again. She turned her eyes to Obito, but she found nothing in his blank expression.

“Will it be a swift death?”

“I’ll draw it out, just for you.”

“Fine. Just don’t give us a reason to leave.”

"I never gave you a reason to leave. You got pissed off and acted like a petulant child." Kana smacked him over the head with one of the throw pillows, so he snatched it from her grasp and slapped her in the face with it. Before they could exchange more blows, Kakashi wrestled the pillow from Obito and threw it across the room, where it hit the television and sent the box crashing to the floor. "Great job." Obito couldn't help his childish response, and he took joy in the fact that Kana laughed. Kakashi took a deep breath, the signal Kana needed to huff and repeat her response. She had no future plans to leave.

They shared canned fruit and vegetables, the only nonperishable items in the home. Kana chose pineapple, although it wasn’t her favorite fruit, and Obito and Kakashi shared a couple of cans of peaches. As they sat on the living room couch, Kana sipped the remainder of the juice from her can, idly sensing around the area to keep herself focused on something other than the overwhelming silence between them. When her thoughts drifted to the army residing in the Mountain’s Graveyard, she frowned at her empty can. Madara wasn’t the man Obito had thought; despite the fact that Kana had never met Madara, she knew in her gut that they shouldn’t trust him. But talking sense to Obito was almost impossible. Zetsu arrived at the edge of the village and slowly moved through the streets, hovering where he thought she wouldn’t notice. Kana met Obito’s eyes and they exchanged a brief nod that Kakashi caught. Zetsu wasn’t supposed to be present. Kana pointed to the floor and Kakashi closed his eyes to try and feel for another presence. It was complicated with Zetsu. He just shook his head. Obito offered up the last of the peaches, so Kakashi finished off the can.

“I’m guessing that he shouldn’t be spying on you,” Kana announced, unconcerned with the fact that the spy lingered in the village. Obito hummed and Kakashi collected the empty cans to toss them into the empty trash can. When the family had vanished, the can had been empty, as if one of them had just taken out the trash. “I think we should get rid of him.” Obito focused solely on her, as if she’d said something outlandish. Kakashi hovered in the living-room doorway, leaning against the frame, a cup of hot tea in one hand. They looked like they belonged there. “How long has he been in your life?”

“I can trust him.”

“Can you?”

“If you can trust him, why doesn’t he know about us? Does he know how close we are?” Kakashi interrupted them, cutting off Obito as the man went to retort. Obito’s mouth snapped shut and he frowned, shooting an accusatory look at Kana, as if she’d encouraged Kakashi to speak up. “I think you need to be careful with this, Obito. You like to rush into things. You’ve always been that way, and you haven’t grown out of it.” Kakashi shrugged his shoulders, then lowered his mask to steal a drink of tea. Kana nodded, hoping her silent agreement would give Obito the push he needed to reevaluate Zetsu’s role in the plan. Obito’s expression soured at the insult; Kana thought he would confront Kakashi, but he remained seated. “How much do you really know about him?”

“He’s useful. He’s a spy network on his own. When we need to dispose of bodies, I send him. When I don’t trust Pain, I send him,” Obito explained, purposely dodging the last question. His silence said everything. Obito had never delved into Zetsu’s past. What he knew was told to him by Madara and Zetsu, both of them untrustworthy sources. “I can trust him,” Obito repeated with more conviction. Kakashi exchanged a brief look with Kana, the doubt almost palpable. They didn’t believe the words, and maybe it was paranoia on their part, but a shinobi was nothing with instincts. “I don’t think I need to tell anyone about us. There is no ‘us’ here.” Kana watched Kakashi’s grip tighten on the mug; she saw the moment where his temper flared before he managed to control himself. Obito had hurt him. That was all she needed to know.

“You’re a real piece of shit, aren’t you?” Kana crossed her arms over her chest and he looked from her posture to her dark eyes. As if he saw their argument playing out, he rolled his eyes. “Just because we aren’t dating doesn’t mean there is no ‘us’ here, Obito. I recall your lips glued to Kakashi’s and your dick in me, so what would you call that? Friendship?” Obito didn’t appreciate her tone, and he hated the word choice, but his silence just irritated her further. She wondered if he meant to start a fight to get the focus off of Zetsu, and then paranoia took over and she was spiraling right before his eyes. “Please don’t make me punch sense into you. I really don’t feel like it right now,” she sighed, giving up on him. He looked offended.

“We’re together. I’m subtracting your vote because we’ve decided it doesn’t matter,” Kakashi smiled, eyes closed. Obito stared at him for so long that his smile wavered. When Obito finally caved, he slumped against the back of the couch and frowned at the remains of the television. "Think about what we said, alright?" Obito grunted.

Chapter Text

Skeletal remains littered the area, most of the bones partially buried in the ground. The harsh northern wind sent a chill down Kana's spine, accompanying the cold that seeped through her layers of clothing. Beneath the earth, the place was alive, and around her, nature chakra thrived. The large creatures, dragons sent from before the time of the sage, no longer walked the earth, but she swore she saw shifting shadows and heard the echoes of their thundering steps. She didn't understand how Obito could frequent the graveyard, even after he explained that the abandoned compound once used by the Kaguya clan was underneath their feet. As they followed Obito, Kakashi lightly slapped her hand that rested between them, a small gesture to draw her out of her thoughts. Sensing in the area made her head throb, so she went in blind. She trusted Obito not to lead them into a trap. Maybe it was wrong of her, when it concerned Zetsu, but she felt confident that they could handle themselves in a fight, even if they were severely outnumbered. They all wanted movement, but the air underground was stagnant. She heard dripping water from several directions, but beyond that, the place was silent. No signs pointed to life she knew existed.

"They haven't moved." Obito made no move to escort them deeper into the underground, so Kana was forced to reach out and check on the army. She sensed no movement, a different outcome than she'd anticipated. The army was playing with them. When he turned and led them toward the familiar setting of his wall of sharingan eyes, he stopped and stared at an empty space. "The box isn't here," he said, sounding confused. "I left it right here." He didn't sort through items, as if he hoped to find the box buried under the concrete floor, but she could tell his initial reaction was to search the room.

"Where is the statue?"

"Irrelevant."

"It's a simple question."

"It's irrelevant, Kakashi." Obito shot him a withering glare and Kakashi frowned and looked away, silently accepting the lack of response. Kana didn't appreciate Obito’s tone, so she shoved his shoulder and he turned his glare onto her. "We have a hideout in the Land of Rivers. You haven't been there. It's located there. It's where we'll gather when we begin sealing the tailed beasts. So yes, it's irrelevant right now. I moved the box here. Zetsu moved it. It's the only explanation."

"I still vote to get rid of him," Kana shared, shrugging her shoulders. Obito rested a hand over his mask to show his frustration with her, but he didn't snap at her. She surveyed the room once more, but found nothing beyond the eyes neatly arranged on the shelves.

"And I vote to eat you." Zetsu emerged from the shadows and Kakashi stepped in front of her, blocking his view. Kana leaned to the side to allow Zetsu to see her unimpressed expression. "What are they doing here? This place isn't for them." Two separate minds occupied the same body, and she could tell that the black version was currently conversing with them. "Are you losing focus?"

"Don't question me," Obito snapped, expecting Zetsu to let the subject drop. Instead, Zetsu laughed. "They're here because I know you've been going behind my back. Is it true that I can't trust you, after everything we've been through?" Kana wrinkled her nose when she saw the wicked grin on Zetsu’s face, one half looking unhinged and the other looking amused. She stepped from behind Kakashi and looked Zetsu in the eyes.

"I was there for you when you were nothing." Obito tensed at the words, and Kana felt the shift in Obito’s chakra. Zetsu crept closer, but Kakashi threw a kunai covered in lightning chakra, stopping Zetsu’s advance. Space remained between them. "Are you going soft now? You wanted to end the wars and save humanity from itself, and I'm here to help you achieve your goals."

But it wasn't always his goal. Kana's thoughts circled around that fact, though she chose to keep the words to herself. Obito had been young and impressionable, and Madara had taken advantage of that. She wondered if she and Kakashi could ever sway Obito and speak sense to the man. Neither of them believed in world peace; they believed in Obito. Zetsu had nothing to gain from the plan. There was nothing keeping him loyal, unless he had some convoluted plan from Madara to sabotage Tsuki no Me. Nothing made sense.

"Where is the box?"

"We were gathering forces for your army."

"Where is the box?"

"With the statue."

"You listen to me. You answer to me. I'm here, not Madara. Do you hear me?" Zetsu sunk into the ground, leaving Obito to glare at the spot where he once stood. Obito clenched his fists at his sides. Kana opened her mouth to reiterate her stance on murdering Zetsu, but Kakashi placed a hand over her mouth. "It's hard to find good help," Obito muttered, trying to make light of the situation.

She and Kakashi knew that Obito hadn't taken Zetsu’s sneaky behavior lightly. He was hiding how he felt, and she understood that. He was questioning all of his choices. Kakashi removed his hand and she licked her dry lips, stalling to give herself time to think of something to say, some reassurances. Nothing came to mind. Obito faced them and she saw something in his eye that she couldn't identify. Zetsu had really gotten to him, reminding him of his talentless childhood when he'd grown into a powerhouse. Had Madara taught him? Had Zetsu helped? How long had he been alone? Kakashi gave her a subtle nod, an encouragement to say something. Obito had been mediocre at best. But he'd changed; he'd grown.

"You were never 'nothing,' Obito." He stopped narrowing his eyes and stared at her as she tried to express how she felt about him. "You haven't gone soft. You've learned to express yourself. There's more to this world, and you're realizing it. He's wrong about you." Kana shrugged and he tipped his head to the side in thought. More than likely, he would dismiss the words, but she'd tried to reach him. They always tried to reach him. "Do you want to examine the box? We'll go with you."

"A coin for your thoughts," Kakashi interrupted, knowing that Obito would refuse them. With the mask on, Obito concealed most of his reactions. She hated it. Obito brushed dirt from his cloak and turned his back to them. He was shutting them out again.

"What if this is a setup?" Zetsu had introduced doubt, unknowingly sending Obito into a spiral. He asked the question circling around in her head. Was Zetsu loyal to Obito, or was Zetsu loyal to Madara? "I should have known. This was never about me. It's always been about Madara. With him gone, I thought I could seamlessly transition into the driving force behind the project. He's just using me, like I'm using him, and I have to say I don't like it." Obito chuckled, but it was laughter tinged with overwhelming bitterness. Kakashi rested a hand on his shoulder and he glanced back at the man. "He will likely try to resurrect Madara. That can't happen. When we begin collecting tailed beasts, I'm going to trust his removal to you."

"Understood," Kana replied, reaching out to pinpoint Zetsu’s location. He was across the continent, and that was for the best.

"We'll stop whatever plans he has. It's one less thing for you to worry about," Kakashi reassured Obito. Obito’s posture relaxed, so Kakashi removed his hand from the man's shoulder. "Let's go find the box, hm? I have a feeling we'll have our hands full."

Chapter Text

To exist in one dimension and quickly shift to another dimension was still jarring. Kana felt as if her insides were jumbled and rearranged in the blink of an eye. Obito had a smooth transition because he'd mastered the art of dimensional travel; unlike Obito, Kakashi was still learning, something she blamed on the fact that he wasn't an Uchiha. The experience took a lot out of him, but Kakashi’s precise chakra control and steady practice kept him from exhaustion. She was proud of him, whether he knew it or not, and she swore she could visualize the hidden smirk on Obito’s face. At that moment, she thought that conquering the world and ruling as malevolent gods would be a better outcome than the peace born from Tsuki no Me. She could imagine watching the world burn, and she enjoyed every moment of her fantasy. She truly believed that the world simply needed to see what she saw in Obito and Kakashi, to feel how she felt about them. But people were simpletons. They would fight and die for nothing, and Kana would walk over their remains. Maybe Kakashi was too good for that, but not Kana.

The box of ultimate bliss was intimidating, to say the least. It was larger than Kana had imagined, and the stone faces carved into the box spoke of an ancient power that couldn't be fully comprehended. Muku was locked inside, so she wondered if the other people were locked inside, waiting for someone to reopen it and release them. Something told her not to reopen the box, that they didn’t want to see the people again, but she forced her doubts aside and waited for the eyes to light up on the box. The chakra they needed fed into it and the lid slowly opened, allowing people to crawl from inside the box and fill the cavern. The number of people far exceeded what they’d expected, and Kakashi clearly felt the same way, because he surveyed the people and their blank expressions. They looked like zombies, as if the box had sucked out their personalities and regurgitated empty vessels. Muku stood in front of the army, and she couldn’t recognize him at all. He still wore the same clothing he’d worn during his last moment of freedom. She wondered if he’d ever seen Ryuzetsu again, if Obito had simply used him and discarded him, a necessary sacrifice to test the box. She almost felt sorry for Muku.

“Muku,” Kakashi said, attracting the man’s attention. “What happened to you?” Kakashi approached the man, unafraid of the man he’d once stayed with, the one he’d once conversed with in the depths of the red-light district.

Muku didn’t reply, instead attacking them. The army meant to stand behind Obito suddenly stood behind Muku. The swarm of people advanced, but they lacked proper training; numbers alone wouldn’t guarantee their success, something Kana vowed to make true. Kakashi engaged with Muku, leaving Obito and Kana to fight the villagers. Kana drew her wakizashi, while Obito drew a manriki, then they remained together and fought, watching their backs. When she checked on Kakashi, she saw him engaged with Muku, still trying to talk sense to a man unreachable, and it was like Kakashi to save someone he had an attachment to. Sometimes it didn’t work. She never expected the demonic, bird-like creature to emerge, so she took a cheap shot to her right cheek that drew her attention back to her own fight. She had to trust that Kakashi could handle himself. She reminded herself of his accomplishments, drew a deep breath, and cut down another possessed villager. The army was entirely useless, all of Zetsu’s plans wasted, and she had to wonder if Zetsu meant to trip the trap to murder them, a possibility, despite his words to Obito.

Kana sent a fireball into the remaining crowd of villagers; at her back, Obito repeated the attack, the villagers immediately catching fire. When she heard Kakashi grunt, she nudged Obito in the back and motioned for him to help Kakashi. He hesitated, surveyed the remaining villagers, then took off, leaving her to fight on her own. She used earth, fire, and wind to destroy the remaining army, then she picked off the remainders with her mangekyou. At the end, chest heaving, eyesight blurry, she turned her attention to Kakashi and Obito to find the demonic creature thrust back into the box and Muku dead at Kakashi’s feet. Obito severed the connection between the box and the statue and the eyes on the masks stopped glowing. For the time being, everything was silent, except for Kakashi and Kana’s labored breaths. She guessed that the creature from the box was the one to somehow aid Kusagakure to ascend to rulers, but the talk could have been false. Everything about the history surrounding the box could have been fabricated. All she knew was that it didn’t work in Obito’s favor, and that made it useless.

“Do you have enough chakra to transport it to kamui?” Obito turned toward Kakashi and Kakashi quietly gauged the remainder of his reserves. With a terse nod, Kakashi activated his mangekyou and transported the whole box to kamui, where it would be out of Zetsu’s reach and removed from temptation. Obito rubbed the side of his neck, as if he had a kink in it, then he sighed. “That was pointless,” he admitted, emotions clearly a mixture of disappointment and anger. Kakashi lowered himself to the ground and Kana went to sit beside him, where she leaned against him. “Your eyes are still bleeding,” Obito noted, his attention shifting from Kakashi to her.

“I’m fine,” she lied, using the back of her wrist to wipe the blood trails from her cheeks. Her eyes bled more with the use of her mangekyou, something she didn’t understand, a sign that wasn’t good. She couldn’t explain her theories because nothing was concrete. “I’m having trouble seeing,” she quietly admitted, her pride tossed out the window to avoid being forced to move when she wasn’t ready. Kakashi hummed, a silent response that spoke of his own knowledge of the situation. Obito had been left in the dark, and she’d done it intentionally. She still didn’t want her brother’s eyes. She wasn’t ready. She didn’t think she would ever be ready. She would see him in every mirror, reflected in every body of water, something torturous for the rest of her life. “Just don’t fucking say it,” she interrupted their thoughts, shaking her head.

“I’m not giving you a choice on this. Either you take the eyes, or I’m going to make you take the eyes by gouging yours out,” Obito informed her, frown hidden beneath his mask. With her eyesight and the limited amount of light, she couldn’t make out his mask, not even the color. He was a blurry figure. Even Kakashi was a blurry figure. And the problem was that she knew Obito would gouge out her eyes—she knew that he was capable of it.

"That's a little extreme, Obito, but I agree that she needs the transplant. Don't give me that look, Kana. This has gone on long enough. Can you tell how many fingers I'm holding up?" She huffed at Kakashi and turned her head away, purposely refusing to answer the question. The answer was no; she couldn't see how many fingers he was holding up, and she couldn't blame it all on the low lighting or proximity when he was right beside her. Kakashi looked utterly worn out, but he forced himself to his feet, even going so far as to help her stand. “Is there anywhere nearby where we can rest? You can take a look at her eyes and she can seriously consider the fact that she has no options.”

“Oh fuck you. I have options. Obito would never—fine, I’ll just pretend to consider my options and project my hatred into stifling killing intent for the both of you,” she said, reaching out blindly for Kakashi to help guide her. She felt pathetic leaning on him for support, but he didn’t rub it in her face. Judging by Obito’s quiet scoff, he was judging her. “How long would recovery take? Do you even know what you’re doing?”

“I transplant my left eye whenever my vision lowers, so I have experience. I would say a day, maybe two, depending on how determined you are to learn what it’s like with the eternal mangekyou. You’ll probably exhaust yourself and pass out, so maybe three days would be more accurate,” Obito supplied, shrugging his shoulders. She flipped him off and he pretended not to notice her. “This place is in the middle of nowhere. I can get us to a village. It’s not the best, but they have a place to sleep. That eye really takes it out of you, Kakashi. It’s a shame.”

“I’ve been in worse condition. I’m still standing,” Kakashi said, a crooked smile beneath his mask. He nudged Kana toward Obito and she reached out with her arms until her hands met his. He chuckled, clearly at her expense, so she squeezed his hand a little too hard. “Just give me a minute. Take Kana.” They didn’t need to ask why Kakashi chose to wait for them, because Kakashi focused on Muku. She wondered if he meant to bury the man. The time Kakashi had spent with Muku made an impression on him. It wouldn’t surprise her if he wanted a moment to say goodbye and give the man a proper burial.

Obito took Kana into kamui, where her world shifted, disappeared, and reappeared in an instant. She groaned as her stomach churned, but he didn’t listen to her. They were gone again, emerging on the outskirts of a rundown village that reminded her of an old mining town purposely built near a stream. The village had likely had a boom and the mines had been depleted, leaving nothing but people too stubborn or emotionally attached to leave. She didn’t need him holding her hand, but he kept his hold on her hand, their gloved hands clasped tight. He’d been to the village before, and it didn’t surprise her, considering the proximity, and the fact that no one blinked at the entrance of two known Akatsuki members.

The hotel was nothing more than a dated bar with a couple of rooms overhead. While Obito negotiated with the bartender for a decent nightly rate, Kana tried to study the bottles behind the bar. It was the nicest place in the village, but that wasn’t saying much. The number of the people in the bar and the large selection of alcohol had her thinking that alcoholism ran high in the tiny village. She heard Obito’s tone turn sour, so she nudged her elbow into his side, a silent exchange meant to check him before he ruined their plans to rest for the night. They’d slept in kamui before, and she’d hated every second, even with decent sleeping bags. There was an exchange of ryo and no key, letting her realize that the place really was old-fashioned. The lack of security didn’t make her happy, but she held her tongue until they were on the narrow staircase leading up to the second floor.

“This place really isn’t the best,” Kana agreed, remembering his words from the hideout. Ahead of her, Obito chuckled. The narrow staircase had small steps, so the whole walk was a nightmare for her. She had to catch herself on the wall a few times, something he didn’t notice, since he’d left her to follow him. “Would you honestly gouge my eyes out?”

“Yes,” he answered, no hesitation in the response. She thought about taking a cheap shot and hitting him in his right kidney, but she just pressed her lips together into a thin line and let her irritation go. She’d suspected that he would follow through with the threat, but hearing his confirmation didn’t make her happy. “I need you.” He said the words as if they were simple for him to admit. Her chest felt tight when she heard the words. Even though he meant he needed her for his plan, she heard something entirely different. At one time, he’d threatened to blind her. Maybe it was just her destiny with him. “Don’t overthink it,” he added, as if he could see her expression. When they reached their room, she caught his hand and they paused in the upstairs hallway.

“Do you need me for this mission or because of how you feel about me?”

“Don’t overthink it.”

“Prick.”

He disappeared into kamui before they could dissolve into an argument, so she went into the room and closed the door behind her. She saw the one bed and didn’t bother commenting on how fate worked against her. She left her sandals by the door and went to lean her wakizashi against the left bedside table. The bed was firm, but not to the point of being uncomfortable, and the sheets and pillows smelled of floral laundry soap, indicating that the place at least considered cleanliness. She’d anticipated cobwebs, bedbugs, and dirty linen. Slipping off her gloves, she dropped them onto the bedside table and lightly pressed her fingers against her right cheek. The punch she’d taken had been a good one, coming from a man twice her size, in height and in weight. It would likely bruise, something she gave up caring about when her mind focused on resting. After her fight, she wanted to gorge herself on food and fall into a coma, but she settled for getting a quick shower. Alone, she managed to get a decent amount of time with hot water, and when Kakashi and Obito arrived, she was already dressed in her shorts and shirt, curled up on the far left side of the bed. Obito wasted no time shoving her toward the center of the bed, so she kneed him in the back. He retaliated by slapping her with one of the pillows, but Kakashi intervened before they could have a pillow fight that would escalate into property damage.

Kakashi took the second shower, while Obito sat down on the bed and studied Kana’s face. She had a feeling he was imagining the way the blood looked as it trailed down her face. The first time she’d activated her sharingan, the pain and the blood on her face had scared her. It was part of the cost of having the sharingan. Every Uchiha with the sharingan traveled the same broken path to blindness. Had their clan survived the massacre, she would have gone blind and had no way to restore her sight. She would have joined others that had lived hard lives, forced into retirement way before her time. The staring eventually wore on her nerves, so she opened her eyes to see his blurry figure. It took longer and longer for her sight to return to normal, and there would be a time when it simply wouldn’t anymore. She wasn’t ready to take her brother’s eyes, but a life without eyesight was one that scared her. Humans relied heavily on eyesight. Other heightened senses would never make her feel whole. She was too accustomed to seeing the world, and she couldn’t go without seeing Kakashi or Obito again. Maybe it was stupid of her to think of them as reasons for clinging to the idea of the eternal mangekyou.

“You smell like lemon and something sweet,” he noted, picking up on the scent of the bathroom’s soap. It was disappointing, but it was free, and she hadn’t picked up her hibiscus soap on their last shopping trip. Lemon and sugar wasn’t a terrible scent, but it wasn’t one that relaxed her. “We’ll do the transplant tomorrow,” he informed her, not even pretending that she had a choice. She frowned, but the lack of clarity, the inability to see his face, kept her quiet. “Kakashi mentioned you didn’t like your family,” he continued, digging at old wounds that had never truly healed. Just the mention of her family had her picturing their faces. She remembered their corpses. Her sharingan had burned the images into her mind.

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“Because I'm an orphan? That’s low of you.”

“My family was dysfunctional at the best of times. My mother and my brother were especially cruel, and my father never spoke up for me. My household thrived on conflict. I didn’t like them. I hated them. It’s different now that they’re dead. They were terrible people, but they were mine. I don’t need a daily reminder of Hajime. I don’t want to see the world through his eyes. I want to forget. I want to forget my family, so it won’t hurt anymore. I want to forget a lot of things,” she said, sitting up. The blankets fell from her chest to pool in her lap, and she clasped her hands there, resting them on the blankets. He nodded, as if he understood, even if he didn’t really understand. “I want to forget the pregnancy too.” He couldn’t look at her after she’d said the words; she saw him turn away from her, hiding his face from view, even if it was blurry. “It’s not that you wouldn’t understand because of your status as an orphan. You aren’t me. You never grew up in that negative environment, and you never gave birth to a stillborn. You weren’t there.” She shrugged her shoulders and lowered her eyes to her clasped hands. A talk was long overdue, but it left a sour taste in her mouth that reminded her too much of lemons. The scent would be another one that she would never forget, a constant reminder of their time in the old mining town.

“I told you I'm willing to try again. I don't know what else to say. It happens," he frowned, glancing at her to catch her reaction. She narrowed her eyes at him and he rubbed his neck, as if he were still working on relieving a kink. He was avoiding her in every possible way. "What do you want from me? Is this what you talk about with Kakashi? Do you talk about it all when I'm not around?"

"He avoids it too. Maybe I'm fucking tired of it. I can't rely on either of you when it comes to processing emotions because we're all equally horrible. I don't want to try again. He mattered. My family mattered."

"They're gone, Kana. It doesn't get any easier. You'll always feel exactly as you feel right now. The wounds will always seem fresh. We're Uchiha. The sharingan is a gift and a curse."

"Did you care? Did it hurt you?" She focused on a shared hurt, trying to seek comfort from someone in a similar situation. He'd lost the child too. His expression shifted and she could almost feel the way he closed off with her. The shower stopped and they both looked at the bathroom door. "Answer me."

"Yes." When Kakashi returned from the bathroom, Obito claimed the room, marking the end of the conversation. She closed her eyes and tried not to focus on the emptiness. She'd asked too much of him. He didn't know how to stay. They both liked to run away.

"Are you alright?" The bed shifted as Kakashi joined her. She bit down on her lower lip and opened her eyes to see him. He knew that something was wrong, but he didn't know how to fix it. He couldn't fix the way she felt. "Did he say something to upset you? I can talk to him."

"He brought up my family. It wasn't a pleasant conversation. Wait. Don't," she said, catching him before he could leave her to confront Obito. She pulled him against her side and she lowered his mask to see his unhappy expression. "He just doesn't understand. I don't think you entirely understand. I know I don't. I wish I could turn my mangekyou on myself sometimes, just to manipulate the memories away."

"Every moment factors into who we are. Loss is a part of us. I wouldn't choose to forget anything that happened to me. Like Rin dying. Like you leaving." Kakashi made sense to her, approaching her sadness from a new angle. Loss had shaped them all. They'd all experienced trauma. "Is this about your family, or is this about the baby?"

"Your intelligence is frustrating sometimes. It's both," she explained, a shrug following. He nudged a kiss to her temple and she turned to capture his lips, because kissing was much easier than deciphering her feelings and facing every mistake in her life. He didn't try to force any words from her. "Do you think Pakkun would agree to being my service dog?" It was an attempt to lighten the mood, so she enjoyed the breathy laugh buried against her neck.

"We'll see."

Chapter Text

He gripped her hips and pulled her back to meet his every thrust, their heavy breathing the only sound in the room. He was filthy with her, even as he complimented how she felt around him, even as he pulled on her hair until she was at an impossible angle. He marked her with his lips and his teeth and his tongue, decorating every inch of her with silent love confessions they avoided after they parted. In the night, they became different versions of themselves, the high feeling achieved with every orgasm encouraging them to say and do things that never translated into the next day. He loved her as he hurt her, and she loved him as she cried out his name. Harder. Faster. She'd never felt better. He pulled out before he came and stroked himself to his climax to cover her bare back in cum. His hold on her hair was gone, and she moaned as she lowered herself onto the bed. She closed her eyes and opened them to find herself sandwiched between Kakashi and Obito, her face flushed. She had a wet dream. How juvenile. She shoved the blankets down enough to free herself, then she crawled down the bed and went to the bathroom. Neither man noticed her absence. She didn't think she would have been able to admit the fact that she'd succumbed to a wet dream that reminded her too much of her embarrassing first time, where the guy had cum on her face and in her hair. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. She shuddered at the memory as she splashed cold water on her face.

“You were moaning in your sleep.” She jumped and knocked her knee against the sink, then she hissed at the shot of pain. Obito stood in the bathroom doorway, looking as if he hadn’t slept for the four hours since they’d gone to bed. Maybe he didn’t need sleep. She’d never asked. “Was it,” he trailed off, rubbing the back of his head. Realizing he meant to address something negative, a nightmare that never occurred, she shook her head. He let his hand drop and their eyes met in their reflections. “So it was just a wet dream,” he continued, sounding unsure. Her expression fell and his quiet laughter only made her want to growl at him to be quiet. She considered lying, but she pressed her lips together and leaned down to splash more cool water onto her face. “What was it about?”

“Nothing.”

“It didn’t seem like ‘nothing’ to me.”

Silence greeted him, even as she gripped the edge of the sink. Neither of them wanted to wake Kakashi, not over something so ridiculous. Kana thought that Obito would pry the answer from her, but he seemed less interested in her response. She prayed he wouldn’t broach the subject of her impending eye surgery, so she missed him sneaking up behind her. He brushed her hair out of the way and leaned his chin on her right shoulder, then they stared at one another in the mirror again. She looked for some sign in his eyes, but he turned his head and kissed the side of her neck. Eventually, she would stop seeing her own eyes; she would find herself looking into her dead brother’s eyes. But Obito made her forget that by reminding her of the fact that he had his arms around her. He knew how to distract her, and she let him sweep her away with every kiss. His hands slipped beneath the bottom of her shirt and his warm breath hit the outer shell of her ear.

“We could wake Kakashi up,” he suggested, trying to draw her out of her head again. She glanced in the direction of the door, silently weighing his offer. It sounded nice. She could get lost with both of them, bear the weight of the eye surgery, and move on. Sex made everything better. He knew that sex made everything better. “You aren’t going to turn down the offer. If I wake him up, are you going to drown us in killing intent?” Her expression soured at the amusement in his tone. Considering possible ways to wake the man up, she couldn’t promise anything. Obito’s hands traveled higher, her shirt sliding up to reveal her bare stomach. The last time they’d slept together had been enjoyable. Up close, she could see Obito. He was handsome in the mirror, even more so when he massaged her breasts.

“If you just start touching him, he’ll react negatively and hit you. He accidentally hit me a couple of times before I learned my lesson,” Kana shared, her tongue going to trace over the spot where she’d bitten herself the last time. She’d tasted blood, and Kakashi had felt terrible. She always reminded him that it was better than a chidori to the heart. He hated that too. “Kissing him generally works, if you can get his mask down before he registers that he’s being exposed. If you aren’t quick, he’ll hit you.” Obito rolled his eyes as he removed his hands from her shirt, seemingly over his idea to wake the man. She couldn’t help the smile that appeared as she turned to capture Obito’s lips in a kiss. Between kisses, she nudged him toward the bedroom, until she could turn out the bathroom light behind them.

Kakashi leaned on his left elbow, his eyes squinted as he tried to adjust to the darkness brought on by the absence of the bathroom light. When he realized they were exchanging kisses, he sat up and rubbed his hands over his face, trying to hang onto his last moments of peaceful sleep. It was just like them to avoid the inevitable, to skirt along the edges of what should consume their minds. They let her run in the way Obito brushed his fingers through her disheveled hair, in the way Kakashi drew her into his arms and trailed kisses along her pulse point. The wet dream faded into the background, a chorus for the way they touched her. They didn’t tear at their clothes or grope one another in some attempt to rush the moment along. It wasn’t what she’d expected, nothing like what she’d dreamed, but she decided that it was what she needed, and they knew that.

Obito always took control. He preferred to control every sexual interaction, in some way, at least, so Kana purposely guided Kakashi into helping her undress the man, forcing him to be the one most vulnerable. She thought that he would complain, but he arched a brow and let the clothing fall away, entirely unashamed of himself. And maybe it was a dismissal of how he looked, but she took it as confidence. Kakashi purposely avoided touching Obito, something that both pleased her and annoyed her, but she understood the man’s hesitation. She’d proven that her jealousy existed, that it had built walls around them, marking them as hers, never one another’s. Taking her bottom lip between her teeth, she took one of Kakashi’s hands and wrapped it around Obito’s cock, and she studied the way the man stroked him. The stirring in her gut told her to just leave them to one another, but Obito’s hand slipped between her legs, and she was included again. They belonged to her, and she belonged to them.

“She had a wet dream,” Obito said, betraying her by sharing the truth with Kakashi. “She won’t tell me what it was about,” he continued, the words meant to draw Kakashi into the game to uncover the truth. She didn’t want to think of the dream with them, but he brought it up, and her focus shifted to how it felt to have the unknown man’s cum on her skin. She’d once thought it degrading, and it had a lot to do with her first time. Obito’s words sparked Kakashi’s curiosity, their attention shifting to her.

“Was it about us?” Kakashi watched for a change in her expression, because Obito had stopped touching her, as if the absence of his fingers meant she would have a genuine reaction. She didn’t know the man in her dream. She’d never seen the man’s face. It could have been Kakashi. It could have been Obito. It could have been anyone she’d ever slept with, and she shamelessly admitted that there was a list.

“Suck him off,” Kana requested, her eyes moving from Kakashi’s face to the lazy movements of the man’s hand. He must have made an expression, because Obito laughed, the mood slowly beginning to bleed away. Kakashi released his hold on Obito’s cock, but made no move to take the man into his mouth. “This night blows,” she muttered, falling onto her back on the bed. She didn’t care if they were in the middle of attempting to have sex. Her own frustration and Kakashi’s hesitation had her disinterest rising.

“Unlike Kakashi,” Obito helpfully supplied, causing Kakashi to blush. “Do you want to experiment or not, Bakashi? She’s getting bored and it’s getting uncomfortable,” Obito explained, the blunt approach bringing a thoughtful expression to Kakashi’s face. After a moment of hesitation, Kakashi backed down and sat on his side of the bed, seemingly over his failed attempt. Where Kana would have normally been amused, she was over Kakashi’s debilitating shyness. “Now you’re pouting. What’s wrong?”

“What if I’m terrible?” Kakashi’s question was quiet, barely audible in the room. Obito covered his face with his hands, while Kana snorted. Of course Kakashi wanted to excel in everything he did. Kana lightly slapped Kakashi’s left calf and he looked down at her. “I ruined your evening,” he said, stating the obvious.

“Lie down. Don’t give me that look. I’m not above making you sleep outside, Hatake.”

“It’s chilly.”

“Fucking lie down.”

Kakashi’s playfulness was replaced by his resignation, made obvious by the way his shoulders slumped. Kakashi slid down until he was flat on the bed, then Obito moved to take his cock. Obito’s mouth closed around him and he moved his hips, making Obito choke and glare up at him. Kana liked that she didn’t have to communicate her plan to Obito. If Kakashi wanted to be the perfect student, then Obito could blindly learn his way to being the better of the two. Kana contemplated going back to sleep, but she ended up over Kakashi’s face, his tongue tasting her. It was a new position for them all, but it wasn’t bad, for a first try. Kakashi came first, proving that Obito was a quick learner, and Obito chose not to swallow, instead spitting it in a cup Kana took from the nightstand. Kakashi really tried to focus on pleasing her, but he had always been rather selfish, as a lover. Once he was satiated, he was useless, so she moved from over him and scowled at the far wall. Obito had to massage her tense shoulders and kiss her neck to get the expression to go away.

"You've always been a selfish lover, Kakashi," Kana scolded him, her words earning an unapologetic shrug. She smacked him with one of the pillows and he let it rest over his head, still content. That was the jerk she remembered. Her attention strayed from Kakashi when Obito found a sensitive spot on her neck. "Right there," she breathed, focusing on the way it made her feel. Obito left little marks on her neck, knowing the cloak would help conceal them. "Kiss me." Obito didn't immediately listen to her request, which sounded more like a command, so she pulled back and kissed him. She tasted Kakashi, though it wasn't unpleasant.

"Do you want to reenact your dream?"

"Mm, that's the best thing you've said all night."

He didn't expect her to get on her hands and knees, but he liked the idea of spicing things up. He brushed her hair aside to run a hand along the curve of her spine, his fingers trailing down to the very bottom of her spine so he could squeeze her ass. Kakashi slowly moved the pillow from over his face so he could watch the way Obito teased her. Obito tapped his cock against her slit, taking the head from her clit to her opening before he entered her. And maybe she deserved the slow, careful way he handled her for being uncooperative. It didn't stay that way though. He pulled on her hair and jerked her head backwards, baring her throat for Kakashi to kiss and suck on her skin. Her moans were loud and drawn out, every thrust quick and hard. The sex felt rushed, and the speed and intensity only added to the excitement she felt. Kakashi found the spot on her neck and she opened her mouth for a choked off moan to signal her orgasm. He hadn't even touched her clit.

He wasn't any gentler the second time around. He bent her back, one hand on her hip and the other buried in her long hair. He fucked her through her climax and tortured her through overstimulation. She tried to find words but Kakashi's lips were on hers and Obito pressed down on her clit and everything blurred together. Breath play was in the way the kisses and her heavy breathing combined. Obito came before her final climax, and he pressed on her clit and rubbed his fingers over it until she finally gave in and her arms gave out. She mumbled words into the comforter, words she didn't remember, words that didn't matter. Obito lay on one side of her and rubbed her back, while Kakashi tucked some hair behind her right ear. She fell asleep with her thoughts on the pleasant buzz still coursing through her veins.

Sharingan eyes filled her dreams.

Chapter Text

In the mirror, her brother stared back at her, his sharingan pattern and her own overlaid to create something new, something beautiful. Her pupil was in the center of a triangle pattern where three lines extended out of her pupil to touch it; the triangle itself linked three tomoe that didn’t quite make a full circle. Obito said some of the patterns reminded him of Madara, which left her mildly unhappy with the results. She could see again, but she would live with the knowledge that she bore Hajime’s eyes, both a blessing and a curse. The transplant had been easier than she’d thought, proving that Obito had experience with the surgery. She wondered if Madara had taught him. There was no other explanation, unless Obito had grown into a genius with more than hard work and determination. Maybe he was a prodigy who’d simply required more of a push to prosper. She still called him an idiot sometimes; he and Kakashi were both idiots sometimes. Locking herself in the bathroom had been a split-second decision, but one both men respected. She still had the used bandages in her right hand, both hands clenching the sides of the sink. If she were any closer to the mirror, she might have hit it with her nose. No matter how many times she blinked, the pattern in her eyes never changed. She let her eyes return to their normal onyx color, then she sighed through her nose. She could see. That was enough—she told herself that was enough.

Kakashi knocked on the bathroom door, clearly brave enough to face her wrath, and brought her introspective moment to an abrupt end. She tossed the used, bloody bandages into the bathroom trash can and tried to stuff all of her mixed feelings away for when she had another moment alone. Only Obito had seen her eyes, bloodshot as they were; she didn’t want to show that part of herself to Kakashi, not yet. Kakashi had known Hajime longer. She didn’t want him seeing the man she saw in the mirror. Her guilt was palpable. She stuffed that down too. Kana opened the bathroom door with a quick jerk, stopping Kakashi from completing another round of soft knocks. He lowered his fist and looked her over, as if he would find injuries on her person. Her eyes were bloodshot, but she’d already washed the blood from her face. He took her chin and turned it to each side, as if he could see a difference in her eyes. They were still dark. Only they knew that the eyes once belonged to Hajime.

"I'm fine. I have a headache and my eyes are sore, but it'll pass. I can see you again."

Kana forced a small smile and lightly tugged his mask down to see his face. He looked unsure, because he knew her well enough to know she would lie, if it meant avoiding discussing her feelings. He kissed her forehead and she leaned into him. When she closed her eyes, she saw the pattern of her eternal mangekyou and her stomach churned. Thoughts of Hajime resurfaced, thoughts she chased away with images of Kakashi's cute smile. She wasn't fine. That required more than a couple days of rest. But she chose not to feed into Kakashi's worries. With the eternal mangekyou sharingan, she felt unstoppable. She could only imagine the added power of her brother's mangekyou. Focusing on her own love of power and her greed boosted her mood tremendously.

"What happened to our resident doctor?" Kana didn't want to focus on sensing, in case she encountered too many chakra signatures and made her headache worse, but she'd wanted to see Obito as well. She masked her disappointment by patting Kakashi's chest, then she ceased leaning against him.

"I got tired of his constant pacing and sent him to get us something to eat. He's been worried, because you've taken longer than he usually takes. He thought he screwed up," Kakashi shrugged, clearly downplaying his own concern. She'd trusted Obito to take care of her, and Kakashi's words only highlighted that fact. She'd trusted him with her sight, and by extension, her life. Acknowledging it left her speechless. "Did you even think about the repercussions if he'd failed? You didn't, did you? You trusted him completely."

"That's absurd. Of course I thought of the repercussions." But she hadn't. She lied to Kakashi because telling the truth scared her. Kakashi smiled, his eyes momentarily closed, then he lightly tapped her ass. "What's that expression for? I told you. I was prepared. Stop smiling at me. You're so fucking frustrating." He chuckled and she turned her nose up at him. A knock on the door kept her from starting an argument. She exchanged a look with Kakashi, then she closed her eyes and felt for familiar chakra. "Wait. It's not him. Didn't you tell the staff not to disturb us?"

"I did. It looks like we have company." He drew his tanto and hid it with the opening of the door. Kana frowned, hand hovering over her kunai. She couldn't see the woman, and the voice was unfamiliar. "What can I help you with?"

"Oh dear. I was looking for someone else. If you could give this to your gentleman friend, I would be awfully grateful." Her voice took on a sultry tone and Kana bristled. Without hesitation, she nudged Kakashi out of the way. The woman had no business with them, and certainly no business with Obito. "I wasn't expecting someone else." The woman had placed her hand on Kakashi's chest and she quickly withdrew it when Kana fixed her with a hard stare. She'd given Kakashi a gold coin.

"Yes, and I wasn't expecting to find your hand on my husband's chest, but here we are. Whatever business you think you have with anyone I care about is now done. Leave." The woman took two steps backwards, then turned and hurried down the hall. Kana slammed the door to send another message. Kakashi sighed at her temper, but he gave her a moment to brood. She was slow to turn her attention to him, but when she did, he cleared his throat. "Don't let some random woman touch you. Do you have any idea how stupid that is? Do I walk around letting men touch me?"

"Husband?"

"That's all you heard?"

"I have selective hearing. It's convenient. Now, now, Kana, you scared her away."

Kana took the gold coin from him and admired it in the light. The front side of the coin had a sun etched into it, while the back side had kanji for wicked. She turned the coin over a few times, silently working through an unsolvable puzzle before she weighed the coin in the center of her palm. The coin really looked as if it were made of gold. Why would Obito need a gold coin with strange kanji? Lips pursed, she closed her fingers around the coin. When Obito returned, he had two bags of takeout, but he shoved them at Kakashi when he caught sight of the coin held between Kana's index finger and thumb. Whatever the coin meant, Obito understood. He smirked to himself as he admired the coin.

"Care to explain?" Kana arched a brow at him and he lost his smirk. He was withholding information again, and her lack of patience brought a scowl to her face. Obito exchanged a look with Kakashi, but he made no move to remove his mask. She wanted to see his face, and he knew she wanted to see his face. "For fuck's sake, Obito, spit it out. What's with the coin your whore delivered?" He snorted at her words, then Kakashi placed a hand on her shoulder to keep her from slapping the mask off his face.

"She's no one, Kana. This coin is what matters. It's our ticket to the Coliseum. It's full of shinobi with kekkei genkai, the perfect place to find a new member. There's one I've been tracking, a former member of the explosion corps, Deidara."

"Oh, the bomber for hire. How did he get mixed up in that?"

"He lost a fight and now he's property. I want to take you both to the Coliseum and enter you into the upcoming competition. I'll be going as your owner."

Kana gave him a flat look, even though she considered the quality of fights she would encounter. The Coliseum was a perfect opportunity to test her sharingan. But she didn't want to risk losing track of Kakashi. Judging by Kakashi's frown, he was thinking of her. They were both guilty of grossly underestimating one another. He could handle himself. He didn't need her looking after him. She loved him, and maybe that was just one of the problems that came along with it. The sweet smell of teriyaki momentarily distracted her, her stomach growling at the thought of consuming the first real food she'd had in days. If something went wrong, they had each other. Endless worrying wouldn't get them anywhere. Obito waited for her to decide if she would play along in his gamble to obtain the rogue bomber. If they lost, she knew Obito wouldn't let them go. She knew he would step in and save them from Deidara's fate.

"I need to test my eyes," she said, as if that alone encouraged her to agree. It was the most obvious reason, and it had come to her first, but she also recalled her old determination to bring the Coliseum to the ground. "Can we destroy it all?" She recalled the way the man had looked at her, how he coveted her eyes. Kakashi still looked hesitant, being the more logical of the three.

"How many people are involved in this?" Kakashi asked the important questions, questions she'd dismissed in favor of embracing her desire to test her limits. "Where is this Coliseum? I've never heard of it." The underlying message was he considered himself knowledgeable. Kana had never discovered the location of the Coliseum. Obito held up the gold coin and Kakashi squinted at it, as if he'd missed something.

"It's on an island between Lightning and Water. It's not on any map. You need an invitation, and this coin is that invitation. We present this, obtain passage, and trade this coin in for entry to the Coliseum. It marks me as a patron, and you'll fight for me." Obito tucked the coin away for safekeeping. Kakashi still looked skeptical, but Obito had no reason to lie to them. "You both can test your strength. There's no risk involved. If you lose, I'll kill the other owner. I don't think we'll need to worry about that though," Obito shrugged. She took the compliment and waited for Kakashi to give in. It was inevitable.

"Fine. You'll be parading as Madara, I take it?"

"Did you think I would arrive as Tobi?"

"It would be entertaining."

"No one would take me seriously," Obito huffed, shaking his head at the idea. Kana lightly tapped her chin and considered the outcome of both scenarios. Madara would instill fear and attract attention, while Tobi would make opponents and owners underestimate them. She couldn't remember the last time she'd dealt with Tobi. Maybe it was overdue. "You want that, don't you, Kana?"

"It's been a while since Tobi came out to play. No one taking you seriously would give us the upper hand. Imagine your ridiculous persona paired with our abilities. Plus it would be fun to fuck with everyone," Kana smirked, a shrug following. Obito immediately looked to Kakashi for a second opinion. Kana craved chaos. Kakashi feigned a cough and produced Icha Icha, burying his face in the book. "Don't you trust me?"

"No, I really don't," Obito replied, his voice suddenly monotone. She rolled her eyes at him and they ached, but it was worth it. "I do enjoy fucking with people," he mumbled, clearly still considering her words. He placed a hand over his mask, as if he were covering his face. "I'm going to regret this."

"Probably, but life is short." Kana clapped him on the back, then went to unpack their food. "You brought me okayu again? I hate you." Kana glared at him and checked the bag a second time, but she still counted one container of teriyaki and one container of okayu.

"You'll need your strength for the Coliseum." She knew he was smiling behind his stupid mask, so she flicked his mask. "Oh Kana-chan, that's not very nice!" She regretted suggesting Tobi. Kakashi lowered his book to show his disturbed expression and Kana burst into laughter. She'd missed the good times they shared. Sometimes she forgot there was more to life than the monotony of missions. "I brought you some matcha cookies."

"You can't be the real Obito."

"I can tell you've recovered."

"Mm. I might still need my doctor."

"What does my favorite patient need?"

"We're not role playing until after dinner," Kakashi interrupted, pointing to Kana's untouched okayu. She scowled at the porridge, then at his chicken teriyaki.

He really hated her.

Chapter Text

The choppy water had the boat swaying from side to side, the constant movement keeping her dry heaving into the toilet. Beside her, Kakashi held her hair back, reminding her of their last boat ride together. Like before, he had his face buried in his book, clearly trying to block out as much of her vomiting as he could. He didn’t need to stay with her, and she refused to thank him for the kindness, but she appreciated his presence. At the first sign of stomach distress, Obito had fled, clearly volunteering Kakashi to stay with her. Obito did have the decency to bring her ginger tea, which she quickly threw up—the thought mattered. They had six hours to cross the sea separating the unmarked island from the mainland. No one had mentioned the rough sea they would traverse to dodge whirlpools that reminded her too much of the journey to Uzushiogakure. Unlike the Land of Whirlpools, the island they were venturing to had no name. The only thing she and Kakashi knew about the place was that the main attraction was the Coliseum. Anything else that Obito knew remained unspoken, with the insistence that he didn’t know anything more—likely a total lie. When the door to the bathroom opened, she turned her head to see the intruder and found Obito grimacing at her state. Her hair was a bit mussed, but she looked pale, her skin was clammy, and she felt light-headed. Without hesitation, she flipped him off.

“She looks terrible,” Obito frowned, drawing close enough to rest his bare hand against her forehead. She thought about throwing up on him, but she huffed and turned her head away, content to ignore the exchange between Kakashi and Obito.

“She’s always been this way. It makes missions almost impossible sometimes. She’ll be fine once we spend a little time on land. Hm, looks like I’m her doctor now,” Kakashi said, the last words spoken being his thoughts. He put his face back into his book, and Obito sighed and sat down across from him, looking unhappy at their squished state. She’d never invited them into the bathroom. She liked to think she would abandon both of them, had they been the ones with seasickness, but her heart told her she would have done the same thing and stayed with them. “So who’s your contact on this island?” Kakashi didn’t look up when he asked the question. The ship lurched to one side and Kana groaned, her knees sliding along the floor before she righted herself.

“The woman that you met is the founder’s granddaughter.” Kana turned her head to glare at Obito and he held up a hand to silence any oncoming words. “I told you she was no one, as in she’s no one to me. She has some value for her connection to the founder, but that doesn’t interest me. I put her under a genjutsu. She won’t even remember seeing us, once it wears off. If it still angers you, I’ll let you kill her,” Obito offered, the words capturing her attention. She considered killing the woman, but the ship hit another choppy wave and she turned to throw up again. The whore didn’t matter, in the end. The coin mattered. Obito made a face at her heaving sounds and turned his head away to avoid seeing anything. “Now I can see why you hide your face in that trash.”

“That’s quite an insult from someone who’s never read it. Care to take a peek?” Kakashi lowered the book enough for Obito to see the outline of a smile hidden behind his mask. “It’s the collector’s edition, complete with drawings at the end. Natsume has an hourglass figure,” Kakashi said, clearly trying to tempt Obito. After a moment’s hesitation, Obito sighed and outstretched his hand, where Kakashi happily deposited the book. Kana eyed the quick exchange. Kakashi had never told her there were lewd drawings in the book; she’d never glimpsed the inside of a collector’s edition. She only knew that there was another book expected within the year, if more setbacks didn’t occur.

Obito opened the book and scanned over a few pages, then he activated his sharingan and began quickly flipping through the book, pausing long enough to scan the page and move on. Halfway through the book, his doubtful expression melted away, replaced by pure confusion. Kana could tell he wasn’t really interested in the story, but he kept with it until the very end. When he fully opened the book and flipped it to the side, she knew he’d discovered the drawings following the story. He tilted his head to the side in thought, then he looked from the pages to Kana, as if silently judging her. The reminder of Natsume’s hourglass figure had Kana placing her hands over her breasts, insulted at the mere thought of a comparison. Kakashi chuckled at her sudden insecurity, so she punched his thigh and had him scooting out of range. She silently dared Obito to say something, but he finished with the pictures and snapped the book closed. He tossed it back to Kakashi and shrugged his shoulders.

“The real thing is better, and her breasts are too asymmetrical,” Obito commented, his eyes going from Kana’s face to her chest. The underlying compliment had Kana lowering her hands, a small smile tugging at her lips. “Don’t tell me you get off on pictures,” Obito said, his eyes moving up to meet Kana’s. They both knew he was addressing Kakashi. The man was still rubbing his thigh, hissing whenever he touched the sensitive spot where Kana’s fist had come down. Called out, Kakashi glanced in Kana’s direction, then wisely kept his mouth shut. It didn’t last long, because he felt the need to defend his favorite series.

“Natsume has a unique body shape and her breasts may be slightly asymmetrical, but they are larger,” Kakashi tried to explain.

“Larger than average? Larger than what, Kakashi? Larger than,” Obito trailed off, waving a hand for the man to continue. Kakashi’s cheeks flushed and he quickly flipped open his book to his previous page and pretended to read. Kana plucked the book from his hands and he sighed at her. “I think he means larger than yours, Kana,” Obito helpfully supplied, too amused to watch Kana smack Kakashi over the head with the book. Kakashi acted as if a comical welt would appear with the way he touched his head. He deserved it, because Obito was correct—Kakashi had used Kana’s breasts as a reference. “As entertaining as this is, I came to tell you we have another two hours left. We need to go over my plan.”

“Is this plan actually yours?” Kakashi had the nerve to sound surprised.

“Please hit him again, Kana.” With no hesitation, Kana struck Kakashi another time and the man completely left her side. Although he looked disgusted, Obito took Kakashi’s place and held back Kana’s hair; he made a point not to look in her direction, which was a wise choice. He could handle many things, but he didn’t want to look at her puke. “As I was saying, Kakashi, we need to go over my plan. There’s no point in hiding who you are, but we need to lose the cloaks for this. We aren’t going as Akatsuki. Pein isn’t aware of this mission. No, I haven’t changed my mind, before you ask, Kana. I will be going as Tobi. If you piss me off in public, I’m going to make sure you know it in private, and that goes for both of you. This is an important mission. Don’t mess this up for me. I’m not above letting you become someone else’s property.”

“As if I'd let that happen," Kana frowned, contemplating striking Obito as well. His expression saved him. He looked like he was withholding information, like he was hesitant to address her proclamation that she would never let them go. Kakashi lowered his book, then he closed it and rested it on his outstretched legs. He'd seen it too. "I can't handle your shit right now, Obito. Just stop. I already feel like I'm fucking dying." Obito made sure he avoided looking at either of them, so she took his other hand and loosely laced their fingers together. She meant to use the heartwarming gesture to lull him into confessing his secrets, but his frown told her that he already knew it.

"You'll be branded." She nearly choked on her own gasp, the shock of his words wiping all thoughts from her mind. She waited for him to laugh, to admit that the words were a joke, but he grimaced. Anger was slow to wash over her, but when it did, her hand closed around his throat, and his grip on her hair tightened. Kakashi separated them by striking points on their arms, then he returned to his spot, still as silent as Kana. "It's not ideal."

"You expect us to let you brand us like common cattle or some human trafficker? What the hell are you thinking? Are you out of your mind?" Kana tried to stand, but her knees gave out and she ended up on the floor again, which only made her angrier. Obito tried to touch her, but she slapped his hands until he pulled back. "Kakashi. Fucking say something!" Kakashi winced at the echo of her voice in the small room. He looked as if he'd just been shaken awake after a particularly nasty nightmare.

"I won't be branding you. Owners present their fighters, and the one in charge of the event will publicly brand them with a seal. It's to keep them in line to restrict fighting to the Coliseum floor." Kana thought of the seal on Obito’s heart and her skin crawled at the thought of someone having that kind of control over her. It scared her, though she would never admit it. Kakashi drew her out of her thoughts by smacking Obito over the head with his book. Obito tried to grab the book, but Kakashi pulled it out of reach. "We need Deidara."

"You're asking us to put our lives on the line for an Iwagakure defect strapped with kinjutsu and anger management issues. What happens if we need to escape? Have you thought this through? Do you have an exit strategy?" Kakashi approached the mission from a logical standpoint, each question reducing Obito’s anger level until he looked calm and contemplative. "I trust you, both of you, but we won't be branded. If that's what this mission requires, you'll have to find new guinea pigs. Are you well enough to go back to our room?" Kakashi turned the attention from Obito to Kana, and she was quick to nod and extend her hands for him to help her stand. They left Obito in the bathroom.

"Some part of me says we should have stayed and listened to him. That part is stupid," she mumbled, the words making Kakashi laugh. He kept a hold on her when the boat swayed, his steady presence making her feel less adrift. "On the mission to Curtain Village, I met a man who goes to the island. His name is En. I was never able to dig up anything on the Coliseum, so I gave up. It was never my mission. It's a little annoying that Obito stumbled onto it. I'd bet everything that En is still involved."

There had been something about the man's odd eyes, even odder than his other physical features. She didn't know everything about his kekkei genkai. But investigating wasn't worth being branded. Even if she did want to trust Obito. She believed in herself and her abilities, so beyond the branding, she worried about Kakashi. The sharingan took a lot from him, though he'd improved his usage since his time in Konoha. She thought of losing him there, and Obito letting Kakashi go for the sake of obtaining another piece in Madara's wild plan. In their room, she contemplated telling Kakashi the truth, but she decided against it at the last moment. She would offend him, and she'd already upset Obito, though it wasn't difficult to do. The more she thought about taking part in the competitions, the less she cared about the branding. She wanted to test her limits. Though she bore her brother's eyes, they truly belonged to her. The possibilities for her new techniques were endless. Kakashi sighed when he saw the faraway look in her eyes. When Obito finally dragged himself into their room, their eyes met.

"I don't give a shit about Deidara. Tell me more about the seal." She placed her hand on Kakashi's leg and he placed a hand over hers. Whether he gave in or not didn't matter. She wanted to fight. The thought of the quality of fights found there almost made her mouth water. The small smile on her face had Kakashi shaking his head. "I'm not forcing you to follow me, Kakashi. It's a risk. Can you remove the seal if we need to make a quick escape?" Obito frowned at the question and she rolled her eyes. "Figures."

"I'd have to see it. Probably. I'll kill the one who placed it on you, if I have to," Obito shrugged. Would he abandon them for Deidara? She didn't know. "I think you're underestimating exactly what I'm capable of."

The words built her confidence in him and sent a chill down her spine, both easily overshadowing her doubts. Kakashi squeezed her hand. She told herself she didn't fully trust Obito, but she still found herself nodding. Her gut told her that something would go wrong, but she easily attributed it to seasickness. That was probably a mistake.

Chapter Text

Nothing prepared her for the thick mist surrounding the island. Most islands in the Land of Water were misty, some of them cursed with constant drizzle, but the mist surrounding the island was loaded with chakra. It took her a moment to realize the mist was a large scale crimson mist barrier, a strong jutsu meant to mask the presence of the island. A person needed to enter the mist to feel the chakra, and most people avoided the most misty areas in Water. There was always a risk of running aground. Traveling through the barrier was like slowly being deprived of oxygen, until they eventually passed through into clear air. It was night, and the island was alive with lights, some bright neon, others old style lamps. The docks were packed with various boats, but their captain found a remaining spot to let them disembark. Kana was too glad to be on land. She thought the captain and his crew would depart the boat, but they turned back toward the sea; she watched them disappear into the mist. Her stomach churned at the thought of being stranded. Maybe that was the appeal of the island. It was an escape, an island built by the wealthy for the wealthy. Shinobi were tools again.

"Look, Kana-chan! It's a fancy brothel!" Tobi exclaimed, pointing to a building with windows lit by red lights. He gasped as a woman waved to him, her scantily clad form causing him to place his hands over his mask to block his sight. Kakashi blushed and averted his eyes, while Kana openly judged the woman. The lingerie was nice, probably expensive. "Look away, Kana-chan!" Tobi stepped in front of her, blocking her view. "We're not here for naked ladies!"

"I'm deeply disturbed by this performance," Kakashi quietly admitted, causing Kana to laugh. She almost missed Tobi. She'd forgotten how amusing the persona could be. She was half tempted to drag him into the brothel for the reaction alone. "The clothing and jewelry on these patrons look expensive. They must be extremely wealthy. I expected another Curtain Village." Kakashi watched a woman wearing a stunning emerald necklace enter an upscale night club.

"Tobi is rich too. With friendships!" Tobi took their hands and swung their arms, leading them on a tiny tour of the island. The brothels inhabited the exterior of the island, followed by clubs and bars, then hotels. In the center of the island, like a crown jewel, was the Coliseum. It looked as if it were constructed with gold dust because of the way it sparkled in the evening lights. "That's where we're going! It's pretty, isn't it? Hm, I wonder when the matches start. I can't wait to see you both fight! You better win. Tobi will be sad if you don't."

"We'll win," Kana assured him, lightly patting his back. Tobi took her hand again and resumed swinging their arms. They look absolutely ridiculous, and she didn't give a damn. "Deidara didn't have an updated bingo page. What are we looking at for abilities? Does he use taijutsu?" Tobi shook his head and released their hands to hold up his gloved hands. "Yes, we're aware he has hands. Thank you."

"He has mouths on his hands that he uses to knead clay into cool art that explodes! He's not a very good artist, I think, but I wouldn't tell him that, uh uh." Kana had some respect for quality art, but she imagined an amateur parading as a true artist. Sasori wouldn't like someone claiming to be an artist when he firmly believed art was eternal. She hoped Obito knew what he was doing. "Let's get some rooms!" Tobi pointed to a five-story hotel that screamed money, easily the nicest place she'd stayed at, but his words caught her attention. He used the plural for room which meant they were upholding the facade that she and Kakashi were less than. She'd grown used to sharing a bed with both men.

"Don't. It's not worth the scene he would cause," Kakashi interrupted her thoughts, knowing by her frown that she meant to protest. "It's probably for the best. We have to make sure it looks like we answer to him. Sharing one bed would raise questions. Holding hands wasn't the best idea, but that seems like a Tobi thing, am I right?" She huffed and looked away, clearly pouting. He gave her time to work through her unhappiness as they waited for Tobi to book their rooms.

"We're sharing a bed."

"You want to debate this in public? It's one night, Kana."

"We're sharing a fucking bed, even if I have to kill everyone in this entire hotel."

"Kana-chan? Is this another woman thing?" Tobi interrupted, handing one key off to Kakashi. She crossed her arms over her chest and she saw him roll his eyes at her childish show of unhappiness. She opened her mouth to complain, but Kakashi clapped a hand over her mouth and nudged her toward the elevators. "Don't ruin this for me." It was a flash of Obito that had the words dying on her tongue. Kakashi removed the hand over her mouth and she grumbled the rest of the way to their rooms.

Tobi went to one room, while Kana took the key from Kakashi and opened the second room. Queen beds greeted her, so she frowned and slowly entered the room. Kakashi closed the door behind them and surveyed the room. A pair of double doors opened onto a small balcony, and there was a large bathroom attached to the room, with a tub big enough to soak in and the option of a shower. Kana circled around the room before she and Kakashi began putting up seals. She had to admit the excitement that burned inside of her was a nice change. She'd wanted better missions, and the Coliseum promised her that. Kana removed her kunai pouch, her scrolls, and her wakizashi, then she dropped onto one of the beds and bounced a couple of times, testing the mattress. It was easily the most comfortable mattress since the mattress she'd had in her loft. Kakashi sat down on the bottom edge of the second bed and ran his hands over his face.

"I have a bad feeling about this." He said the same thing she'd thought on the boat, but nothing surpassed her current excitement. She patted the mattress and he joined her on her bed. "Getting a lashing isn't in my top ten fantasies," he said, his tone dry. The seal was applied with a water whip coursing with lightning chakra, not exactly a pleasant experience, as she’d encountered a Kirigakure hunter-nin using that same technique. She fell back onto the bed and he lightly nudged her thigh. "Are you hungry?"

"After that nightmare boat ride? Hell no. I can go get you something, if you want."

"Obito mentioned that shinobi with kekkei genkai like to disappear here. I don't think it's a good idea for you to go out alone."

"Give me five minutes and I'll go bang on Obito’s door, since he's all powerful and immune to that basic shit."

"Ah, so you are still grumpy about the beds. Why don't you ask him to come through the wall?" She turned her head to look at him and narrowed her eyes. He chuckled because he knew without her saying that she hadn't thought of that.

"Because I didn't fucking think of that, genius one." She muttered the words, knowing he likely heard them anyway. She sat up and straightened out her hair, then she searched for a hair tie to hold it all back. When her hair was up, Kakashi trailed a hand down her spine. "I'll be back in a minute, don't open the door unless I tell you our secret word, pineapple." He arched a brow at her code word, but he didn't complain. She pinched the side of his thigh, then she got to her feet and left the room.

She thought about really banging on Obito’s door, but she settled for three sharp knocks and the announcement that she was housekeeping. Obito opened the door a crack for her to see his mask, then he grabbed her arm and dragged her into the room. The number of seals spread around the room was impressive, but definitely overkill. She found a familiar seal on the door that contained chakra to a specific area, like a small barrier, so she memorized it to apply to the room she shared with Kakashi. Obito had a nice room, with a small living room area separated from the bedroom by sliding doors. He had yet to remove his mask, whether out of paranoia or forgetfulness, she didn't know.

There was a handmade map of the island open on the coffee table, with little marks and colors defining buildings. The characters written on the map were surprisingly neat, though small. She sat down on the couch and went over the map, while Obito spread his belongings out on the end of the bed. Without his cloak and Tobi persona, he looked intimidating. Dressed in all black, he looked as if he were an assassin on a mission. He felt her eyes on him and glanced over his shoulder at her, his silence itself being a question.

"You used your sharingan on that ridiculous tour to memorize the entire island. Very nice. And the seal to confine your chakra to this room was modified. Is it to mask your sensing? It's clever."

"You act like I'm some kind of amateur. I'm the real leader of Akatsuki for a reason." He joined her on the couch and pointed to the center of the map, where a diagram of the Coliseum was unfinished. He'd never been there before, and they had yet to enter the building. Once they were inside, he would complete his little map. "Kakashi didn't come with you," Obito noted, choosing to state the obvious. She shrugged her shoulders.

"He's hungry. I offered to get him food, but he thinks someone is going to kidnap me and rip out my eyes," she shared, her tone flat. He didn't laugh at the words, so she realized Kakashi was right to worry. "Can you get some food, since you're so big and strong?" He laughed at her attempt to kiss ass, but she'd expected as much. He still hadn't removed his mask, and she wanted to see his face, the private moment only increasing her desire. "Kakashi suggested you come through the wall to our room. He's pretty smart. I meant what I said about killing everyone, just to be clear."

"We need to focus on the mission."

"Kakashi and I have the hardest part."

"I'm aware of this. Be happy I let you room together. I shouldn't have."

"Just get some food. If you don't want to spend time with us before we go on this dangerous mission, that's fine."

"That's low, and it isn't going to work. Go back to your room. I'll get the food and leave it outside of your door." He went to retrieve the pouch of ryo from among his things, while she glared at his back. He was impossible. She considered arguing with him, since she knew he had silencing seals up, but she settled for returning to Kakashi. "Don't slam the door," Obito called after her. In response, she slammed the door on her way out.

Kana seethed for the short walk back to her room, then she was greeted with a demand for the password, where she huffed and told him to fuck off. Kakashi didn't hesitate to open the door for her, and she went right to her bed, where she fell onto the mattress. Maybe he expected a better mood from her, but Obito’s dismissal only added more fuel to the fire. He was already compartmentalizing, and he was the worst while doing it. His sole focus was on his goal, even if it came at the cost of someone else. She reminded herself that the fights would make it all worthwhile. And she had Kakashi, even if the man was unusually quiet. He hid in his book, even though he hadn't turned the page in well over ten minutes. She'd made him rest a lot during the journey to the island so he would conserve chakra and start out at his best. His average reserves wouldn't be the end of him, not with his increased chakra control. He was exceptionally precise.

"He's in the frame of mind where he'd disregard us, if necessary. It's great for the mission, but not for us. We'll need to look out for one another on this one," she said, leaning back on her elbows. Kakashi sat on the side of his bed and finally closed his book.

"I thought as much. We've been on plenty of difficult missions together. This won't be any different," he assured her, showing that he truly believed the words. His sincerity made her feel better about his odd behavior. He'd likely been thinking over the words for some time. "It's been a while since I've been challenged in a fight. Maybe I should look forward to it, like you," he said, his eye smile on display. She'd hoped he would adopt a similar outlook. Kakashi enjoyed testing himself in fights. She hadn't seen him take a fight seriously since he'd had the quick exchange with Hidan.

"I miss seeing you in action. You're an amazing shinobi, Kakashi."

"You're going to make me blush."

"Good. Savor my praise. You won't get it often."

After they ate the food Obito left for them, Kana took a long bath, while Kakashi patiently waited for his turn. In the end, they started the night in separate beds, but she woke up to Kakashi at her back, his arm loosely slung over her. It was nice to wake up to him; it was always nice to wake up to him. She turned over and curled up against his chest and closed her eyes, content to steal a few more hours of sleep. The promise of the Coliseum weighed heavy on their shoulders.

Chapter Text

The Coliseum reminded her too much of horror stories she'd heard about concentration camps in the third war. Participants were gathered on the ground floor and separated based on ownership, which meant she and Kakashi shared a small room that was basically a prison cell. From their cell, they saw other participants through the bars comprising the door. She told herself that she'd accepted the mission, and she had a feeling Kakashi was thinking the same thing. They sat on a bench and listened to the cheering and clapping coming from within the stands on the higher levels. She hadn't glimpsed En, but she'd seen the medic from Curtain Village skulking about. He was likely the one to provide aid for the participants. One by one, two men visited each cell, where they applied the seal that would last for the duration of their time there.

Kakashi was the first to get the seal. One of the men instructed Kakashi to lift the back of his shirt, while the other man prepared the jutsu. Kana frowned when Kakashi tensed. The smell of his skin being burnt had her covering her nose. When she glimpsed the seal, she saw his red skin and the seal that glowed before turning blue. The men eyed her romper and she sighed through her nose before turning away. Facing Kakashi, she unzipped the front of her romper until she could slide it down to reveal her back. The pain reminded her of something white-hot touching her flesh, but she withheld her hiss and zipped up her romper again. She had to commend the men for not being massive perverts. When they left, she muttered curse words under her breath until the burning subsided. Despite her high pain tolerance, she still hated being injured.

"They're taking the first pair," Kakashi announced, nudging his chin in the direction of the cell right across from them. The man responsible for applying the seals led a young boy from the cell; the boy was too young to be fighting in the Coliseum. He had green hair that almost touched his shoulders and piercing yellow eyes. He had a red headband, clearly lacking a hitai-ate that tied him to a village. "He's young," Kakashi thought aloud, sharing her opinion on the boy. "He must be strong. I wonder if he has a kekkei genkai."

"Probably. I wish we could witness the fights. I don't know why I thought they would let me enjoy watching you kick ass," she mumbled. Kakashi touched his slanted hitai-ate, then he closed his visible eye. It took her a moment to realize he was tapping into Obito’s sharingan. It had been a good idea to learn how to control it. As he focused on the fight, she stretched in preparation for her own fight.

"Typhoon release."

"Impressive. How's his control?"

"It's just like you said. He's impressive. He already won the fight. The referee stepped in to keep him from killing his opponent."

"Right. No killing," Kana said, repeating the words told to them upon entry to the building. She was slightly disappointed. Her tone said everything about her feelings on the subject. Kakashi opened his visible eye to end the connection he'd had with Obito, and Kana gave up on stretching to reclaim her seat beside him. "I guess that rules out your fanciest jutsu."

"I know over a thousand jutsu. It's not going to hinder me," he said, rolling his eye at her. She couldn't resist the fake gasp, as if she'd never heard of his abilities, so he pinched her side. Together, they watched a man escort the typhoon release user back to his cell. "He's malnourished," Kakashi quietly shared. In the overhead lamps lighting the path down the aisle of cells, the boy looked bony and pale. Either he had an illness or his owner starved him.

"We're not getting involved," Kana cut him off, ending any hopes he had of freeing the boy. They had a mission. Unless they happened to get the boy as an opponent, there was no helping him. Kakashi frowned, but he didn't disagree with her. He wouldn't have won the fight.

They watched numerous shinobi come and go, both of them waiting for their own opportunity to showcase their abilities. Kakashi was the first to fight. Watching him walk away, knowing she couldn't watch him fight, she gripped the edge of the wooden bench and listened to the noise from the crowd. Through the noise, she focused on his chakra, feeling the nature transformations he used during the fight. He didn't waste chakra, but the fight dragged on. His opponent had quite the reserves, so it was a battle of chakra control and endurance, which Kakashi won. When she saw him coming, she looked him over for injuries. He was sweaty and he had a few cuts and bruises, but he was in good shape. She waited for him to sit down before she gave his thigh a squeeze, all she allowed herself with eyes on them.

She was the last to see the floor of the Coliseum, but she savored the thrill of showing off her strength to the stands littered with wealthy patrons. She saw Tobi among them and he waved to her, calling out her name as if he were too excited to see her. Kakashi would likely watch her match. The person standing across from her was a child, barely a teenager, and she recognized his clan markings instantly. He was the sole survivor of the Kaguya clan, Kimimaro, and he had the shikotsumyaku kekkei genkai. The gods hated her. She needed to play mid-range, if not close range. She was hesitant to get too close, knowing he specialized in close range. His bingo page was full of information, and that was starting at a very young age. She understood why the boy survived and disappeared. He'd likely been stolen during the fight against Kirigakure and forced to fight in the Coliseum.

They stood across from one another, the referee maintaining distance between them as he announced their names and the names of their owners. She was surprised to hear the name Oyashiro En. The man leaned forward in his seat, obviously still interested in her eyes. She couldn't afford to lose. She wasn't going to lose. When the referee announced the beginning of the match, she watched Kimimaro’s skin part to allow him to pluck a bone long enough to serve as a blade. The sight was unnerving, to watch his pale skin part and see his insides. She drew her wakizashi and their blades clashed, the connection marked with the echo of startling noise. Kana cringed at the sound, the noise reminding her of her reaction to nails on a chalkboard. Every time their blades met, she suffered through the noise, while he seemed unaffected. He was young, but he wasn’t inexperienced. She tried striking him, but he blocked her blows with bones. Her kick was nearly caught by his rib cage protruding from his chest, so she jumped back and ended their exchange of kenjutsu and taijutsu.

The distance did nothing to stop him. He used his ten-finger drilling bullets on her, which she blocked with her wakizashi; the finger bones damaged her blade, the seventh bone breaking her sword altogether. Irritated, she activated her sharingan and dodged the eighth, ninth, and tenth bones. She closed the distance between them again and deflected blows with her kunai, the reinforced weapon smaller but denser. His taijutsu was precise and his reinforced bones were deadly. His bones cut her in numerous places, small sacrifices she made to actually draw blood, then she switched to her mangekyou. Her eyes gave her new clarity. The first thing she noticed was that she had more control. Instead of using her sharingan to manipulate parts of his brain related to memory, she had her brother’s gift for manipulating nerves.

She pushed chakra into his system to mimic impulses and focused on his heart. His eyes widened and he placed a hand over his chest, his motions faltering as he swayed. His heart rate dropped, until he simply collapsed to his knees, an anticlimactic end to their battle. The use of the power cost her the ability in her right eye, which was a small price to pay, because she wouldn’t have won the fight without her mangekyou. And she knew the power she held. The recovery time remained a mystery. It took a few minutes for Kimimaro to come around, and then he looked at her as if she were some kind of all-powerful being. Her win meant he belonged to Obito. Together, they returned to the cell to reunite with Kakashi. She was covered in bleeding cuts and winded, but she was fine. She collapsed onto the bench and rested her head against the wall at her back. Kimimaro hesitated near the bars, his eyes moving from Kana to Kakashi.

“Tobi declined ownership of my opponent. I can see why he would want the last member of the Kaguya clan,” Kakashi remarked, moving down on the bench so Kimimaro had a place to sit. Kimimaro sat down next to Kakashi, his posture rigid, his eyes staring straight ahead; Kana could tell he didn’t want to be there. “Who was your owner?” Kimimaro bowed his head at the question, his guilt and shame almost palpable.

“Oyashiro-sama,” Kimimaro replied, his voice low. Kakashi didn’t recognize the name, because Kana had never known the man’s surname. Kimimaro noticed the confusion in Kakashi’s gaze and a corner of his lips lifted for a partial smile. “En-sama,” Kimimaro further explained, the name causing Kakashi to look at Kana. She gave a shallow nod, all the confirmation he needed. “You knew him. When he found out you were fighting, Uchiha-sama, he bribed the owner to make us opponents. I failed him, but I will serve you well.” He gave a small bow and she rolled her eyes at his polite attitude and the way he almost seemed to worship her. He didn’t belong to her. He didn’t serve her. He belonged to Obito, and he would serve the man well.

“Tobi. You will serve Tobi well. He’s our owner. You would have won the fight, if it weren’t for my sharingan. Your kekkei genkai makes you the ultimate taijutsu master. Fighting you close range was dangerous, and you proved that you were capable of long-range fighting too. I hope we get to fight again, without the use of my mangekyou. I can learn a lot from you.”

“My attacks are my multiple dances. I call them dances because they are beautiful, but deadly. I would be honored to fight you again, Uchiha-sama.”

“Stop using that honorific. It’s stupid. My name is Kana, no honorifics needed.”

“Very well, Kana-san.”

“This is going to get old fast.”

Kana refused to speak to him, because of his constant use of honorifics, even after she told him to drop them, leaving Kakashi to attempt an awkward conversation that Kimimaro ignored. Kimimaro got up, in the middle of Kakashi talking, and moved to cram himself onto the bench on Kana’s side. She scooted away from him, both to give him more room and to maintain her personal space, but he insisted on being glued to her side. Her glares and her sighs did nothing to deter him, and Kakashi showed no interest in helping her. She decided she should have just killed Kimimaro instead of sparing his life, even if it meant the referee activating her seal.

The second round of matches gave her more freedom, where she fought a puppet master from Sunagakure. He didn’t compare to Sasori, which made her instantly look down on him. She didn’t use her sharingan at all during the battle, which the man took as an insult and began fighting with the fuel of his hostility. He became clumsy in his attacks, often sending his puppet at her with saws meant to carve her into pieces, and the referee remained uninvolved. For whatever reason, the referee didn’t step in to stop the match, so she hacked the puppet master’s puppet into pieces and engaged him in taijutsu. He was a decent puppet user, but he wasn’t the best she’d seen, and his taijutsu proved he wasn’t a well-rounded shinobi. She punched him hard enough that he doubled over and vomited at her feet, then she kicked him in the side and sent him flying into the wall, where he smacked into the concrete and landed in a heap on the ground. He didn’t move, so she looked at the referee and shrugged her shoulders. The puppet user wasn’t dead, but she’d clearly used too much force. With no other choice, the referee deemed her the winner of the match, and she advanced in the rankings. Unsurprisingly, Obito chose to decline accepting the puppet user. The unconscious man left on a stretcher.

Kimimaro greeted her when she returned to the cell, but she focused on Kakashi. The referee waited for him, the sign that he was the next to fight. Kana lightly slapped his hand as they passed one another. Stuck with Kimimaro, Kana sat on the opposite side of the bench and focused on Kakashi’s chakra. While she was distracted, Kimimaro moved to sit right next to her. He didn’t know how to take a hint, so she elbowed him until he scooted down on the bench. He was still too close for her liking, but he left her alone. Kakashi’s fight escalated quickly, and she knew the moment when he began using his sharingan that something was wrong. Kana could tell that his opponent had good reserves and an affinity for water release techniques. At times, she couldn’t tell where the nature transformation began and ended. It felt as if the person were made of nothing but water. Kakashi’s lightning release gave him a solid advantage, but the sheer power behind the water jutsu used against him made her wonder if he was fighting one of the Hozuki clan of Kirigakure. What made her worry was the fact that Kakashi’s opponent also knew wind release. She felt the moment when Kakashi reached his limit and she clenched her eyes shut when she knew he’d exhausted himself. She waited for Obito to step in, for him to retrieve Kakashi and let the plan go up in flames, but he didn’t. Obito let him go. Kakashi was someone else’s property. And all she saw was red.

Chapter Text

Kakashi left the Coliseum, most likely on a stretcher. She felt the moment he crossed the threshold, and she followed his weak signature around the village until he was stationary. Obito hadn’t intervened, which meant the man expected her to finish off the plan alone. Beside her, Kimimaro stared at the far wall, his expression blank, despite the killing intent leaking from her. He didn’t know about the plan. He wasn’t a part of the plan. She wished he’d been the one to leave on a stretcher, not Kakashi. The seal burned when she tried to mold her chakra, so she huffed and drew the remains of her wakizashi. The sword had been broken off, the end of the blade cut clean through, leaving two sharpened edges behind. If she focused wind chakra into the blade, she thought she could cut through the bars of the cell. Her first strike earned her nothing but sparks, but the second swing put a nick in the metal. She focused on that spot until her blade broke again, then she angrily threw it across the cell and shook the damaged bar, as if she could break it off with her bare hands. Kimimaro walked up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder, so she turned her narrowed eyes on him. He had his bone blade in his hand, and he motioned for her to step aside. His strikes cut deeper into the notch until the bar snapped off, then he moved onto a second bar, doing his best to give them enough room to slip out of the cell. She didn’t understand why he chose to help her, but she didn’t care. When the second bar broke, Kimimaro stepped aside and motioned for her to go first, then he followed her.

“Why did you help me?” They began the walk through the maze of the underground, so she kept her voice low to avoid attracting unwanted attention. He frowned, as if he were insulted that she’d asked the question. “You have nothing to gain. You don’t even know what I’m going to do. Are you crazy?”

“No, I’m not crazy. I chose to help you because I owe you. I am free of Oyashiro-san. You are well-fed and in good shape, so your owner treats you better than Oyashiro-san treated me. My life is yours.” He said it in a way that had her doubting his understanding of the words. She thought it was ridiculous for him to hand his life over to her. She’d wanted nothing to do with him, and she’d made it obvious. Maybe he thought he could gain freedom. Maybe that was possible with Obito, if the man had no plans for him. “I have always been a prisoner or a prize. Let my life have meaning, Uchiha-sama.” She wanted to slap him for using that ridiculous honorific, but she settled for pursing her lips. He’d offered his help, even though she thought he was insane. She didn’t trust him, but she could use him.

The first two men they encountered didn’t have time to activate their seals. Kimimaro beheaded them with a single stroke of his blade, then he offered his hand to help her step over their corpses. She nudged his hand aside and purposely stepped on the bodies to continue on their route. Explosion release rocked the Coliseum, sending small debris down on top of them. She brushed the dust and dirt from her shoulders and looked up at the crack in the ceiling. They were beneath the arena. She could imagine the heat associated with the explosions. The crowd didn’t seem to care that they were in danger. Most of them were likely drunk on wine or liquor, thinking themselves invincible. Kimimaro cleared the path for her, until they met the man who’d applied the seals. He activated them before Kimimaro could strike and it felt as if she were being electrocuted, every inch of her body nothing but pain. She grabbed the man by the front of his shirt, but he knocked her arm aside and made to grab them and drag them back to their cells. Her eyes bled as she activated her mangekyou. She couldn’t use her new ability again, but she still hurt him enough to have him grabbing his head in pain. When he was on his knees, his concentration slipped and the pain ceased. She snapped his neck and stomped on his chest until it gave way under her foot. Kimimaro had to call her name to get her moving again. No one would ever brand her again.

Every fighter in the Coliseum realized when the seals disappeared. She felt bursts of chakra at their back, where other participants broke free. When Deidara realized he had freedom, explosions happened in multiple areas, both on the arena floor and in the stands. Sweet screams of the patrons filled the air. When she sensed Obito approaching, she broke into a run, Kimimaro following. She didn’t know what Obito expected to find, what reaction he’d hoped to gain, but she didn’t think he’d anticipated the punch to his gut. He grabbed her fist before she could hit him a second time. She said nothing as Kimimaro attacked, too pleased with the quick exchange taking place. In her mind, she rooted for Kimimaro to skewer him alive, but every hit phased right through him. Kimimaro stopped to stare at Obito’s visible sharingan, then slowly lowered the blade. Kana scoffed at the teen’s reaction and dragged him backwards to get him out of range of Obito’s strike. Around them, people ran for exits blocked by debris. She wanted Deidara to destroy the entire Coliseum, to take every patron down. The mission to capture the bomber meant nothing to her anymore. Obito tried to grab her arm as she shoved right past him, but Kimimaro smacked his hand aside. She could imagine the scowl on his face.

“Are you her guard dog now?”

“Uchiha-sama has saved me. Do not touch her, or I'll be forced to kill you.”

“I leave you alone and you find a worshiper?”

“Fuck you, and fuck this mission. You let them take Kakashi,” Kana yelled at him, looking back long enough for him to see the rage in her eyes.

She thought she saw regret, but she turned away so quickly that she could have been mistaken. She only wanted to find Kakashi. Her mission was simple. But Deidara decided to target her, and her rage became directed at him. Kimimaro fired bones that struck the bird Deidara rode on, forcing Deidara to focus on them rather than killing off the last of the patrons. Explosion release brought up horrible memories. When she looked at the boy, she saw the Iwagakure shinobi that had blown her teammate to pieces. To her, Deidara was the same as that shinobi. He stood between her and Kakashi, and no one was stopping her from retrieving Kakashi. Kimimaro was the one to bring the bird down, his constant assault chipping away at the bird until Deidara was forced to jump to the ground. His bird exploded and blew out a portion of the top levels of seats. She didn’t know what he saw when he looked at her, whether he saw someone standing between him and freedom or he saw someone to take his anger out on. She commanded Kimimaro to stay back as she marched toward the bomber. Every one of his explosions was met with earth release, sending debris raining down on them. Lightning release would have been nice, but she was so angry that she didn’t care what it took to kill him—she was going to kill him.

He sent small clay frogs at her that she buried under earth release, then he tried birds, and she struck them down with a water trumpet and threw shuriken at them to pin them down. When she was close enough, she let him see her sharingan, and he fell victim to her eyes. She captured him in a genjutsu meant to mimic their surroundings, focusing on sight and sounds, and when she was close enough, she prepared to slit his throat, but Obito caught her wrist. She lashed out at him by trying to stab him, and he let the blade sink into his gut. For striking him, he backhanded her and her head snapped to the side. He knocked Deidara unconscious and threw the boy over his shoulder, then he turned to leave. Kana threw several shuriken that passed right through him, then Kimimaro blocked his way. Kana didn’t stay to see the fight. As she exited the crumbling Coliseum, she focused on Kakashi’s chakra signature. He was still stationary. Kana didn’t think about how they would escape the island—it was one thing at a time.

“This looks like perfect timing,” En greeted her, blocking her path. He still wore the same ridiculous glasses he’d had on when they first met, but he reached up and removed them. His eyes were red, so she avoided looking into them. He wanted to engage in another fight, his ketsuryūgan against her sharingan, but she knew what it meant to fight him. It would take too long. “You aren’t going anywhere.”

He knew her thoughts, since it was obvious she only wanted to pass him. He tried for physical contact, since she avoided looking him in the eyes, but she dodged his strikes. He meant to take advantage of the iron content in her blood, but she avoided skin-on-skin contact. She swung a kunai at his throat, but he jerked backwards and the blade missed. She shook off every genjutsu he tried to place over her, and countered by casting genjutsu of her own. It was more of a battle of the minds than anything physical. Impatient, Kana activated her mangekyou and finally made eye contact. She couldn’t use her brother’s technique on him, but she could still use her own. The blood she drew with her mangekyou was used against her, as he manipulated it with his kekkei genkai, so she ceased the technique and focused on dodging again. The one to save her was Kimimaro. His bones went right through En’s body and the man fell to the ground. En tried to continue manipulating his own blood, but Kana slammed her foot down on his head until she cracked his skull. Their eyes met one last time before he lost consciousness. She tried to finish killing the man, but Kirisaki, the medic, intervened, forcing her back with his chakra scalpels. Reluctantly, she grabbed Kimimaro’s arm and they took off again. She knew it was a mistake to let En go, but her focus was on Kakashi. En was a problem for the future.

Kana didn’t know why she hoped Obito would follow her. She thought he’d changed, but he fell back on old habits when it mattered most. Obito’s absence hurt her, but it didn’t stop her. She broke into Kakashi’s hospital room, kicking the door down even though she could have simply opened it. Kimimaro was behind her, killing off the staff trying to prevent her from reaching Kakashi. Injuries sustained in the Coliseum had been healed, leaving a man suffering from severe chakra exhaustion. He was stupid to push himself too far, and she would slap him for it later. She pulled up the mask on his shirt to cover the lower half of his face, but he didn’t open his eyes for her. He needed to rest, but they had no time for rest. She freed him of needles and wires and made a clone to help her carry Kakashi from the room. One of his arms thrown over her shoulder and one over her clone’s shoulder, she made her way to the door, where Kimimaro greeted her. Kimimaro was the one to clear the way for them, his devotion paying off for her. A young teenager she’d just met followed her into danger, while Obito ran off with the newest piece to the Tsuki no Me puzzle. That fueled her simmering rage until she used her own killing intent to paralyze people stupid enough to try to stop her. They would freeze and Kimimaro would cut them down, and it continued that way until they reached the south dock. At their backs, the Coliseum fully collapsed, sending a cloud of dirt into the air.

“Where are we going, Uchiha-sama?”

“Stop with the honorifics. You’re free. You can go wherever you want. Fuck off like that bastard Tobi.”

“If I can choose where I want to go, then I'll go with you.”

“You know what? I’m not fighting with you over your stupid decision. Find us a boat. I don’t care if you have to kill an entire crew. Save the captain and I’ll put the fucker in a genjutsu. We’re getting off this island.”

Kana adjusted her hold on Kakashi, while her clone grunted at trying to hold the weight while she did. Kimimaro picked a stunning yacht, the nicest boat among the ones tied to the dock. She heard screaming for several minutes, followed by complete silence. When Kimimaro appeared on deck, he waved her forward, all the encouragement she needed to carefully board the boat. He escorted her to the wheelhouse, where she found the captain tied up, with an old rag serving as a gag. Kimimaro took over her spot so she could bend down to the captain’s level. She removed the gag and the man immediately started pleading for his life in an accent marking him as an inhabitant of one of the islands. Pressing her palm over his mouth, she waited until his mouth stopped moving. He was afraid of them, likely because he’d never dealt with missing nin. The wealthy owner of the yacht was a civilian, more than likely, so the captain was only used to dealing with spoiled, self-entitled brats.

“I’m going to move my hand now, and you’re going to listen to me. Do you understand? Nod for me.” The man hesitated, then he quickly nodded several times. Slowly, she moved her hand from over his mouth and silence greeted her. “We’re hijacking this piece of shit. You’re going to take us to Lightning. You aren’t going to make any stops. You aren’t going to signal for help. If you cooperate, I won’t kill you. If you refuse, I’m going to make you suffer until your last breath. Am I clear?” The man began to cry, so she slapped him hard. He stared at her with wide, watery eyes, then he nodded, as if he just remembered her words. She grabbed the front of his fancy jacket and tugged him to his feet, then she freed him. “Watch him,” Kana said, motioning for her clone to remain in the wheelhouse. Kimimaro was tall for his age, so he helped her get Kakashi below deck. They didn’t speak to one another until the boat pulled away from the dock.

“Your owner has abandoned you, Uchiha-sama. Where will we be going?” Kimimaro asked the question she didn’t have an answer for, so she covered her face with her hands and groaned. She should have expected abandonment. Obito had developed his sensing skills, so he would always find them. They couldn’t hide from him. And she wanted to hide from him. “I believe Orochimaru-sama would aid us, since he promised me refuge.” She let her hands fall so he could see her incredulous expression and he hid a small smile. “Maybe not,” he answered, discarding the idea and leaving her on the spot. They had the whole world before them. They could go wherever they pleased. That made it even more difficult for her to decide on a spot.

She sat down on the edge of Kakashi’s bed and stared out the window across from her. Kakashi was covered in sweat, a new development since their departure from the island, but not uncommon with severe chakra exhaustion. He’d drained his life force, and his body was slow to recuperate. It would take days for him to recover enough chakra to move on his own. They needed somewhere safe, and she couldn’t think of a single place that would offer them safety. Hands clasped in her lap, she went through villages she’d passed through during her years spent traveling, and even during her time as a Konoha shinobi. Yumegakure came to mind, since it was a hidden village and had medics, but the country bordered the Land of Fire. She wasn’t afraid of a brush with Konoha, as she’d proven during the times she’d broken into Konoha, but the village could refuse them entry. At that thought, she looked at Kimimaro. He still stood in the middle of the room, as if he needed permission to sit down. He’d been conditioned, likely from childhood, to accept some form of confinement. His devotion still bothered her, but he’d proven himself. The Kaguya clan had been infamous and hated by the world for their obsession with war and power. Kimimaro bore his clan markings. There was no guarantee Yumegakure would accept him.

“Tell the captain to head toward the southwestern border of the Land of Hot Water. If Yumegakure won’t accept us, I’ll make them accept us.”

Chapter Text

Their time on the yacht stretched on for hours, and she spent every moment locked in the bathroom, ignoring Kimimaro’s constant knocking. She didn’t want him hovering over her while she felt like death. She wanted Kakashi to open his eyes, to show her that he was slowly recovering, but it was asking too much. His chakra was still dangerously low, so there was nothing to do but wait. Her impatience and her paranoia worked well together, conjuring up worst-case scenarios that paired with her constant seasickness. She spent her time struggling for air between episodes of vomiting, even when she had no food left. She wanted Obito to bring her ginger tea again, but that thought had her hands curled into fists. When she saw him again, she had every intention of fighting him, and she meant to use her new technique on him, to show him that he shouldn’t test her again. He’d been the one to restore her sight; he’d given her the power associated with her brother’s eyes. And she meant to use that power and reduce him to his knees. The knocking resumed, so she closed her eyes and groaned. She just wanted Kimimaro to leave her alone. The kid didn’t know how to take a hint.

“Kana-sama?” She took a deep breath when she heard him say her name, but the honorific had the air leaving her lungs in one go. She’d lost count of how many times she’d corrected him. The knocking stopped, but she knew he hadn’t walked away. “We reached land, Kana-sama. Are you alright? The door is still locked,” he informed her. The honorific had her scowling at the door then, but she forced herself to her feet. When she opened the door, she yanked it open and met his vivid green eyes. She wished he were a bit shorter so she could truly look down on him. “You smell like vomit. Do you suffer from seasickness?”

She pressed her index and middle fingers against the center of his forehead and shoved him backwards. Before she went to brush her teeth, she felt her clone pop and the memories of its time with the captain returned to her. The man had been obedient, though terrified, so she was pleased. Frowning, Kimimaro rubbed the center of his forehead. She’d used too much force, but he deserved it for being so annoying. Kakashi was still on the bed, right where she’d left him, but it was clear Kimimaro had been tending to him. The washcloth on Kakashi’s head had been changed, and the man’s fingerless gloves had been removed and placed on the nightstand. His mask was still up, but that would have to change. He was sweating too much. When she went to brush her teeth, Kimimaro followed her, but he stopped in the doorway. She appreciated the fact that he hadn’t glued himself to her hip. Yes, she’d changed the course of his life, but he didn’t owe her anything. He didn’t know how to go away, and she used it to her advantage. Kimimaro was annoying, but he was strong and he helped her; she put up with him because of his willingness to be used. She knew all about using people.

As she brushed her teeth, she kept her eyes on his reflection. Unlike before, he met her gaze, and the color of his eyes unnerved her. The green was bright and unnatural, and it made him more intimidating. He had a heart somewhere, buried beneath years of abuse, but his eyes didn’t show it. When she looked at him, she saw a killer. She’d trusted him with Kakashi because she’d had no choice, and he’d proven himself again. After brushing her teeth, she rinsed her mouth with water and went to pack her belongings. Kimimaro remained in the bathroom doorway, though he’d turned to watch her pack.

“We could move faster if we left him.” She bristled at the mere thought of leaving Kakashi behind. When she glanced at him, he saw her expression and he averted his eyes. “I understand,” he said, even though he didn’t. Maybe he’d never cared for another person. It made her wonder what his life had been like when he still had his clan; it made her wonder what he’d gone through after they’d all been slaughtered. “You’re a sensor,” he stated, clearly attempting to start a conversation. Instead of replying, she chose to ignore him. “You use your chakra,” he continued, as if he could convince her to talk to him.

“Kimimaro, I’m not in the mood right now. Yes, I’m a sensor. Yes, I use my chakra. Now help me grab Kakashi so we can get off this damn ship,” she frowned, nodding her head in the direction of the man.

“Yes, Kana-sama.” His response made her want to abandon him. She thought about making another clone to help her with Kakashi, but Kimimaro had already moved Kakashi to a seated position and put one of Kakashi’s arms over his shoulders. “Would you like me to make a clone?” She silenced him with a single look and slung Kakashi’s other arm over her shoulders. Kimimaro was the one to bid the captain goodbye, even bowing his head for a moment to show his thanks. Kana didn’t bother acknowledging the weak civilian. “I’ve never been to Yumegakure. Is it a large village?” He was trying to connect with her, and she knew it, but she didn’t have the patience to deal with him. She didn’t have it in her to have a decent conversation. Even though she’d uprooted the boy and dragged him across the sea with her, she didn’t think he deserved anything from her. “I upset you.”

“You suggested we leave Kakashi. Yes, you upset me. You’re fucking annoying as hell, and you expected me to leave my—,” she stopped and pressed her lips together. Kimimaro looked over at her, waiting for words she refused to say. When he looked away, his attention shifted to Kakashi. “It doesn’t matter. We’re not leaving him. If I didn’t need your help, I’d abandon you. But here we are.” Kimimaro opened his mouth to speak, but she narrowed her eyes at him, so he closed his mouth. After a frustrated sigh, she took a moment to simply breathe. “If we’re going to be traveling together, you need to stop hovering over me. I like my personal space, so it sets me on edge. Stop looking at me to constantly dish out commands for you to follow and think for yourself more. We aren’t always going to be together. Obviously no one prepared you for the real world.”

“I would go to Orochimaru-sama.”

“Stop. Stop using that honorific for that piece of shit. Stop thinking going to him is a good idea. He experiments on children, and you’re a child. What do you think is going to happen to you? Use your brain. You’re a damn prodigy. You should be intelligent.”

“I don’t want to be experimented on.”

“Kimimaro, Kakashi and I are members of Akatsuki. Have you heard of the organization?” She looked over at him and he slowly nodded, showing her that he’d heard of the group. She didn’t know a delicate way to tell him that the group was terrible and he should leave while he had the chance, so she wrinkled her nose. “It’s a shitty group with evil plans. You seem like a good kid,” she continued, waiting for him to nod again. Instead, he frowned.

“I’m not a good kid. People are afraid of me, and they should be,” he said, confused at her implication that he was too good for the group of criminals. He wasn’t a missing nin, but he had his own bingo page. She didn’t think he was as bad as he believed himself to be, which drove her to call him good. And in the end, all shinobi were bad. Killing people was still a sin. “You said I can go wherever I want, Kana-sama. I want to go with you. I don’t care if you’re a member of Akatsuki. I have seen true evil in the eyes of my former clansmen. I don’t see it in you. You offered me freedom.” She had a feeling that when they parted, Orochimaru would try to take Kimimaro away. The thought of Orochimaru experimenting on Kimimaro irritated her. She couldn’t protect him forever, and taking him into Akatsuki meant talking to Obito and Pein. She hated Pein, and she wanted to strangle Obito to death. “Kana-sama?”

“Just shut up.” She huffed at him and turned her head away so he couldn’t see her expression. She was conflicted, and the rest of the journey to Yumegakure was spent going over her options and the fact that she owed the boy next to her. She didn’t do favors. She didn’t like repaying debts. Briefly, she considered just killing him to keep him from falling into Orochimaru’s hands. And he still didn’t see the evil in her.

Chapter Text

Yumegakure was a hidden village, though it was small and isolated in comparison to the great nations. Where Hoshigakure dreamt of gaining a seat at the proverbial table, Yumegakure had already earned the right with their unique usage of the transformation technique. Yume shinobi used more combat-oriented versions of the transformation technique. She’d seen Enzo’s daughter, Ryuka, training with the technique. The young girl had turned into a wolf-like creature, where her speed, strength, and endurance increased; the girl had been able to take two chunin down in the form, without breaking a sweat. It was the first time she’d seen a Yumegakure shinobi use the technique. Kana never forgot the way the transformation looked in the light of the full moon. The beauty of the village and the power of the transformation technique made the place appealing, but the area surrounding the village made the journey dangerous.

The land surrounding the village had four areas: There was the Forest of Mythic Beasts, the Hill of Illusions, the Forest of Confusion, and the rumored resting place of a demon, the Three-Heads Prison. Both forests were concealed in heavy mist, but only one was inhabited. The exiled Amagiri clan lived in the forest of mythic beasts, where giant insects roamed. The Amagiri clan was hostile to outsiders, and even to many members of the ruling Tenro clan. The forest of confusion was once dubbed the suicide forest. People entered the forest and never returned. The mist in the forest of confusion was thick with nature chakra that trapped travelers in layers of genjutsu. The Yumegakure shinobi were accustomed to the influence and could pass through the forest without falling victim to the genjutsu, but outsiders had no advantage. Yumegakure shinobi counted escorts through the forest as missions, charging those wanting passage the rate of a B-rank mission. Kana chose to take the route through the forest of confusion because of her sensory skills. The one time she’d traveled through the forest, she’d needed no assistance. She only hoped it was the same.

They stopped before the forest and she looked at the thick mist hovering amongst the trees. Even with the light of the half moon, the forest was dark. To her senses, the air in the forest was alive. She knew that Kimimaro couldn’t see anything in the forest, but he still stared at the way the path disappeared into the darkness. While Kimimaro supported Kakashi, Kana retrieved a small flashlight and shined it into the forest, where the darkness easily swallowed it. They would have to stick together. She didn’t know how to explain the threatening environment without referencing its past title as the suicide forest. People lost in the forest, under the influence of genjutsu, harmed themselves until they couldn’t anymore, and it was a terrible way to die.

“It’s warmer.” Kana heard the confusion in Kimimaro’s voice, and she understood it. They’d gone further north from the coast, and though spring had already begun its slow return, the forest was too warm for the air surrounding it. The constant movement of the mist and the circulation of nature chakra produced heat that could rival a balmy summer night. “I don’t like this forest, Kana-sama,” Kimimaro decided, turning his head so she could see his deep frown. She bit down on her lower lip and returned her gaze to the forest. The overwhelming chakra and warmth had her stomach in knots. Anyone could have felt uneasiness at the first brush with the atmosphere.

“This is called the Forest of Confusion, but it was previously dubbed the Suicide Forest. The mist dulls the senses and the nature chakra influences inhabitants, human or animal. The genjutsu is powerful enough to drive people and animals to harm themselves. There are only two ways into Yumegakure. One way is through the Forest of Mythic Beasts, which is closed to outsiders. The second way is through this forest.” Kimimaro stared into the forest again, then he tightened his hold on Kakashi. She didn’t know what would happen with Kakashi, but his severe chakra exhaustion made her believe that he would remain blissfully unaware of the journey. She couldn’t lift the genjutsu. The only way to escape the genjutsu was with pain. People hurt themselves over and over again, regaining awareness and losing awareness until the very end. “Don’t let go of Kakashi. I don’t feel like hunting your ass down in this forest, got it?” It was her way of saying that she wouldn’t leave him behind, and he showed her a small smile as he nodded. He was too young to die.

“The birds.” Kimimaro raised a hand to point at the blackbirds flying in circles and ramming into trees. Migrating birds had strayed from their flock and fallen under the influence of the forest. Dead birds fell at their feet, joining the bodies already on the forest floor. She shined the light in his face to gain his attention. He looked devastated. For the first time, she saw signs of his heart and she felt bad for letting him witness the deaths.

“Focus. Do you want that to happen to you?”

“No, Kana-sama. Thank you.”

Kana moved the light from his face to the forest and they resumed walking. Kakashi’s breath hitched and Kana stumbled over a tree root, nearly dropping him in the process. Kimimaro was at her side in a moment, leaving her to grab Kakashi around the waist before he fell to the ground. Sighing through her nose, she shifted her weight to her right ankle. She was sure that she’d sprained her left ankle, but she’d been through worse. Kimimaro insisted on inspecting her ankles, and she gave up fighting with him. He refused to help her with Kakashi until he carefully examined her left ankle. His expression was grave as he looked up at her, making her think she’d broken it without knowing it.

“It’s sprained,” Kimimaro confirmed, causing her to laugh. His eyes widened at her laughter, because he didn’t find anything funny about her injury. His expression had been so serious, and he’d really scared her. She already suspected she’d sprained her ankle, due to the fact that it hurt when she put any weight on it. “I’ll carry you, Kana-sama.” Her laughter stopped when he tried to get her to drop Kakashi.

“No. No. Stop!” She shoved him away with one hand while holding onto Kakashi with the other. At one point, she slapped her palm over his face and pushed him away. “I’ll be fine. Help me with Kakashi or I’ll let you die in this fucking forest! Don’t make me repeat myself,” she scowled, hoping her heated glare would deter him from making another attempt to carry her. He mumbled something under his breath and she stared at him for a moment, thinking she’d imagined it. He’d talked back to her. “What did you just say?”

“Nothing, Kana-sama. Let’s continue,” Kimimaro said, forcing a fake smile that only confirmed her suspicions. He’d muttered about her under his breath. It pleased her, because it was a sign that he was thinking for himself. If he’d voiced his complaints a little louder, she probably would have slapped him. He was smart. “More birds,” he mumbled as they came upon more of the dead birds. She looked over at him, but he had a vacant look in his eyes that had her stomach dropping.

“Kimimaro?”

She tried softly calling his name, hoping the out-of-place expression was momentary. When he didn’t respond, he confirmed her thoughts. The skin on his arms began to separate, the gory scene enough to spur her into action. She rested Kakashi against a tree and tried to punch Kimimaro, but he dodged her attack. He was aware of her without being aware of her. He saw an enemy in her, and he fought her like one. He tried to slash her chest open with his bone blade, but she blocked with a kunai and swept his legs from beneath him. He knocked his head off the ground when he fell; when he blinked at her, she knew she had him back. She held out a hand to help him to his feet and he accepted her help without a word. She didn’t want to ask what he’d seen in his genjutsu, and he didn’t share any details. The further they went into the forest, the harder he fought. They stopped more often to fight. When they reached the middle of the forest, where a tall tree rose up through the mist, simple blows no longer worked on Kimimaro. He cut a slim line across her throat that had her narrowing her eyes at him. His attempt at beheading her had failed, but she was tired of going easy on him when he fought to kill.

He called his attacks dances, and she found the title fitting as he made a graceful turn and slashed in an arch to try and cut her arm off. She jerked to the right and tried stabbing him in the back, but his spine protruded from his body, completely shredding the nice kimono top he wore. He transitioned easily from dance of the camellia to dance of the clematis: vine, and she found herself dodging his spine. It was amazing to see his kekkei genkai in use. His spine was extremely flexible and used like a whip. The cartilage stretched to allow for more reach, and the vertebrae had spikes that made each hit deadlier. She knew it was an attempt to trap her so he could finish her off. She threw shuriken that he deflected with quick movements of his spine, then she drew two kunai and fought as if she had two swords. She struck his arm, but not before bones sprouted on his body and impaled her wrist. The dance of the larch caught her and she shouted in pain, the first thing Kimimaro heard when he regained control of himself. He tried to touch her, but she slapped him. Blood flowed from the injury, so she applied pressure while he tore off the right sleeve of his kimono top and carefully bandaged her wrist.

“I never meant to hurt you.” She thought about slapping him again, but the pain in her wrist and the blood staining the lavender fabric had her clicking her tongue at him. He hadn’t meant to hurt her. They needed to get out of the forest. He helped her with Kakashi and they continued down the narrowing pathway leading out of the forest. “I call it Karamatsu no Mai,” Kimimaro softly spoke, drawing her focus from the forest to him. The dance of the larch was a fitting title. “If I go underground, please leave me. Sawarabi no Mai is inescapable.”

“The dance of the seedling fern,” Kana mumbled to herself, trying to imagine what the attack would look like. Kakashi groaned in pain and they both looked at him with wide eyes, hoping that he was regaining consciousness, but he merely grimaced. She met Kimimaro’s eyes and the boy offered her an apologetic smile that had her rolling her eyes. “You aren’t going to kill me. I don’t know how to die,” she said, smirking at him. The ache in her wrist told her to listen to his advice and be wary of his next attack.

When he fell victim to another genjutsu, he disappeared underground, and she felt his chakra before his bones ever protruded from the earth. She took Kakashi in her arms and jumped into the trees, where she left him on a branch, secured against the tree trunk. Kimimaro rose from among the sharpened bones breaking through the earth and she jumped to another tree to get him away from Kakashi. He was prepared, with another bone blade, so she threw shuriken to distract him. Instead of running away, she jumped to the tree closest to him and made eye contact. She didn’t want to hurt him, but the bones began to grow sharp protrusions, showing that the dance of the seedling fern wasn’t done. Blood ran from his nose when she targeted his mind. He swayed and began to fall, but she grabbed his right ankle, preventing him from impaling himself on the collection of bones. He regained awareness and shouted her name, so she squeezed his right ankle a little tighter. The relief on his face made her smile. Kimimaro was incredibly odd and extremely annoying, but he really was a good person. After they were on the same branch, he hugged her tightly and she awkwardly patted his back a few times. She still didn’t want him touching her, but she gave him one solid minute and shoved him away. The rest of the journey went without incident.

As soon as they reached the main entrance to Yumegakure, a team of shinobi descended on them, weapons drawn and at their throats. Kimimaro’s skin parted, but Kana whistled to gain his attention and shook her head. With a small nod, Kimimaro ceased his attempt at forming his bone blade and allowed her to take control of the situation. Most of the hostility was directed at him, because of the markings on his forehead and his obvious kekkei genkai. Shinobi tried to separate Kana from Kimimaro, but she activated her sharingan as a threat and the boy returned to her, where he helped her hold Kakashi. They needed the hospital, or at least safe lodgings for the next few nights, but the shinobi were unwilling to let them enter the village until they conferred with the village leader, a man by the name of Tenro Enzo, the leader of the dominant Tenro clan. She recalled meeting him one time, and he’d told her to never return. She was hoping he’d died, a victim of the tense dealings between the Tenro and Amagiri clans. The fact that she hadn’t attacked the shinobi currently preventing her entry to the village should have made a difference, but it didn’t. They had to stand, caught in limbo, while two shinobi went to retrieve the village leader. At three in the morning, Enzo would likely want nothing to do with them, but she meant what she’d said on the yacht. If Enzo refused them entry, she would put every one of them under a genjutsu.

“The air smells different here,” Kimimaro noted, his voice and his words surprising her. They were in a terrible situation, and he chose to breathe in the fresh air of the village. But she understood what he meant by the words. The air around them was very different from the air in the Forest of Confusion. Judging by the looks the four Yume shinobi exchanged, they understood the meaning as well. They observed Kimimaro’s state for the first time and noted the blood still staining his pale face. “Is this your leader?” Kimimaro pointed in the direction of three advancing shinobi. Kana recognized Enzo immediately, and he frowned when he met her eyes.

“I thought I told you never to show your face here again, Uchiha,” Enzo greeted her, clearly remembering their fight during the Third War. She shrugged her shoulder, though she didn’t look away. His gaze went to Kimimaro and he looked the boy over from head to toe. No one needed to tell him they’d traveled through the Forest of Confusion on their own. “I am Tenro Enzo, leader of Yumegakure. For the crimes your clan committed, I should kill you where you stand.” Kimimaro lowered his eyes, but Kana hissed his name and drew his attention to her.

“Don’t apologize for something you didn’t do, stupid. They’re dead.” He cringed at her choice of words, then gave a shallow nod. He no longer looked away from Enzo’s intense gaze, and that had the leader scowling, showing off the deep lines on his face. He’d aged, and he hadn’t aged well. “It’s old news, Enzo. Konoha and Yumegakure made peace, just like the rest of the damn world. Get over it. I’m asking you to show us some hospitality.” He laughed at her words, but she hadn’t expected him to simply accept them into the village. Her allegiance was with Akatsuki still, and that meant she had no reason to play nice. “I’m willing to trade favors. Medical attention and a place to recover for my friend, and somewhere for us to stay until he’s fully recovered.”

“Kana-sama will also need medical attention, Enzo.” The lack of an honorific had Enzo staring at him, but the man eventually turned back to Kana. He didn’t reject the offer, but he wasn’t accepting it. He saw the bloody sleeve wrapped around her wrist and he exchanged a look with another Yume shinobi.

“You’re insane for traveling through that forest unaided.”

“I’ve been called worse.”

“We will provide for you.”

“In exchange?” Enzo didn’t answer her, but he motioned for his shinobi to lower their weapons. Kana pursed her lips and looked between the shinobi, her paranoia telling her that they meant to lull them into a false sense of security. When Enzo motioned for them to enter the village, she knew he meant to keep the open-ended favor. She knew not to trade favors. Something told her she would regret it.

Chapter Text

The hospital hallways smelled like lemon, and the scent took her right back to the mining town, to the last heavy conversation she’d had with Obito. Thinking about him made her incredibly upset, a disgusting combination of disappointment, anger, and self-hatred. She missed him, so she refused to speak to anyone around her, punishing them in the way she couldn’t punish Obito. Kimimaro tried to talk to the medics, but they were rude to him when they acknowledged him, so he learned not to say anything at all. The doctor that treated them tried to convince her to leave Kakashi in the hospital, but he couldn’t explain what the medics would do that she couldn’t do. There was no way for them to treat him; they could administer fluids, but she didn’t trust them enough not to poison him. In the end, he would wake up when he recovered more chakra. So she ignored the doctor’s strict recommendations and checked them all out of the hospital. Kimimaro should have been resting, but he helped her carry Kakashi to the ryokan where they were permitted to stay.

She tucked Kakashi into bed and placed a cool cloth on his forehead, then she slid his mask down since it was damp with sweat. The light sheet she'd drawn over him, along with the sheets tucked under him, would likely need changed the next morning, but she shoved that thought aside for the future. Before she left the room, she covered his face again, then she slid the door closed behind her and went to the second bedroom to check on Kimimaro. When she saw he was sleeping, she closed his door and went to the couch in the front room, where she dropped onto the cushions. Kimimaro had almost severed her median nerve. The doctor had called her lucky, but she didn't feel lucky. She was disgusted with herself, and it had nothing to do with the subpar hospital food in her gut. She didn't think Obito would have the guts to reach out, but she'd felt his chakra sensing in the hospital, and it'd only encouraged her to leave.

She didn't know how long she sat there, staring at the blank television, but the sound of blackbirds in the trees around the engawa coaxed her out of her thoughts. Their songs were sweet, as if they'd just returned in a spring migration. She had a feeling Kimimaro would know more about them. She didn't really care for birds; her summons killed birds. Even though she'd asked for a quiet room, she still heard the sounds of the ryokan as it came alive. She heard snippets of conversations and bits of music and laughter from televisions. Kakashi was a light sleeper. He would have been beside her, listening to the same annoying sounds signaling that life existed outside of their room. She checked on him a few hours later, placed another cool cloth on his forehead, and left. In her hours of solitude, she learned that Kimimaro slept like the dead. No amount of noise disturbed him, which was the only amusement she had that day.

She had lunch alone, and when dinner arrived, she had dinner alone too. Halfway through a cheesy movie, she dozed off, missing the heroic rescue of the damsel in distress. She woke up with a scream lodged in her throat and rolled onto the floor, where she knocked her head against the tatami. She didn't know how she'd survived in such solitude. Before Kakashi, after Kaisei, she'd had no constant in her life. She had meals alone. She watched television alone. She did everyday chores alone. The silence in their room was too much for her, so she went onto the engawa for fresh air and the last bits of birdsong before night. For some reason, Kana thought of the tiny life she'd had in Kirigakure, where she and Kakashi had some semblance of normality. Leftover hostility told her to use her new power to dismantle Akatsuki. And that was all. There was no life after her success or her failure. She and Kaisei had once had a rule that they were never allowed to go to bed angry. He'd come up with the idea, and she told him if she followed that rule, she'd never get any sleep. She'd had some of the best sleep of her life.

"Kana-sama?" She heard Kimimaro call for her, but she didn't move from her seat. He found her sitting on the edge of the engawa, her bare feet hovering over grass still damp from an afternoon shower. "Have you had any sleep?" She didn't feel like talking, but he didn't care. Every second of her silence was another second for him to talk. She found she missed the noise. "Kakashi-san isn't your friend, is he? Is your owner," he trailed off when she glared at him, his instincts telling him to let the conversation die. "I had a friend like that. His name was Jugo. He could communicate with animals. He loved blackbirds." Kimimaro sat down beside her and looked up at the trees, searching for birds still restless in the night.

"You're better off without him."

"That's what Oyashiro-san said. He called Jugo a monster unfit for human contact, so I tried to gouge out his eyes."

"When you care about someone, you put yourself at risk. Sometimes it's better to be alone. It's less complicated. You aren't stupid for taking someone back because you have no one to take back, and no one can make you feel worthless."

"I think you're wrong. I was alone for half of my life and it did nothing for me. I longed for someone to accept me. There are some that are worth your time. Not everyone will hurt you, Kana-sama." He touched her shoulder and she wrinkled her nose at the contact, but she didn't scold him. He wasn't wrong, even if she didn't like the words. Maybe they were both conditioned to want and want and never receive, to give and give and never receive. He offered her a small smile that didn't reach his eyes. "It looks like it's going to rain again." She looked at the thickening cloud cover and slowly got to her feet, where she offered her hand to help him to his feet. He looked at the pale mark on her wrist, knowing he was responsible for the scar.

"You're a little young for love."

She patted him on his shoulder and left him on the engawa to watch the thunderstorm build. She was in Kakashi's bedroom when she heard the first boom of thunder, and she jumped at the feel of the floor vibrating. When lightning lit up the sky, the light in the living room area went out, signaling a loss of power. Kana left Kakashi's side to light candles, so they would have some light during the night. She paused at the doorway leading to the engawa and saw Kimimaro talking to a little blackbird perched on his index finger. She stayed there long enough to hear him chuckle at himself, then she returned to Kakashi's room. The man had turned onto his side and curled in on himself. Thunderstorms didn't shake him to his core, so she knew it was likely a dream. She ran her fingers through his hair and lightly massaged his scalp until he stopped trying to curl up even more. Chakra exhaustion wasn't very fun to experience.

"Wake up."

She climbed onto the futon with him and held him to herself, slowly rubbing his back. With the storm outside, she didn't expect anyone to be in the hallways of the ryokan, so she overlooked the series of knocks on her door. It took him extending his chakra for her to feel him over the abundant nature chakra surrounding the village, but when she recognized his warm chakra, her thoughts turned deadly. With Kakashi in her arms, she focused on remaining calm. She heard Kimimaro slide open the door, then she heard it slam shut. Closing her eyes, she sighed through her nose and pulled away from Kakashi. She didn't want Obito to break the damn door; she didn't want to owe anything else to Enzo. Kimimaro sat on the couch, a half-empty cup of tea on the coffee table, while Obito gave up knocking and let himself into the room. Kimimaro greeted him with ten bullets, while Kana greeted him with the teacup. He missed the bullets but the cup hit his mask and the remainder of tea soaked the front of his Akatsuki cloak.

"You shouldn't have barged in," Kana shrugged, his anger no longer a deterrent. He tried to get to her, but Kimimaro was up and ready to stab him before he made it two steps. She took joy in Obito’s killing intent, knowing that he was at a disadvantage. When the killing intent began to spread, she countered it with her own, trapping Kimimaro in the middle. "Kakashi needs his rest. If you wake him up, I'll make sure you know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of my new technique."

"I gave you those eyes."

"Thank you. I love them."

"I was going back."

"You had the chance and you chose Deidara. I hope Sasori poisons him, by the way, a slow and painful death for that little prick," she frowned, still blaming Deidara for her problems. Obito took another step forward and Kimimaro swung at him, the dance of the camellia passing right through him. She knew the moment when Kimimaro began to time Obito’s ability. "Why don't you start apologizing? Better yet, why aren't you at Kakashi's bedside right now? Why weren't you in the Forest of Confusion with us? Why was Kimimaro with me while you were off having a damn picnic with your new best friend?" She didn't care that her voice was a steady crescendo. He drew away from her as if he'd been burned, then his attention strayed to Kimimaro again.

"This kid? He's a little young for you, don't you think?" At the question, she kicked the coffee table out of the way, reinjuring her left ankle, and tried to reach him, but Kimimaro simply picked her up and set her aside. She was so stunned that she just blinked at him.

"Please calm down, Kana-sama. I'm aware you have no romantic feelings for me, and we aren't involved. He's using a very cheap tactic to anger you. Which you will stop doing now," Kimimaro said, the last part added for Obito. Kana looked from Kimimaro to Obito and they were both entirely speechless. Kana sat down on the couch, while Obito fixed the coffee table. "I'll check on Kakashi-san." He bowed his head and left them alone, both of them watching him walk away.

"He's weird, but he grows on you like a vine," she commented, feeling that she had to say something about Kimimaro. Obito hummed, but he didn't really understand. He hadn't been with them. He'd been with Deidara. "He stays, by the way. I really don't give a fuck what you think about it." Behind his mask, Obito frowned. She knew he was very aware of her temper. They were both very aware of the fact that he'd fucked up again. He was the embodiment of every mistake she'd ever made. Looking at him made her hate herself. "So? Spew your typical bullshit. Without Kakashi, we'll probably end up fighting in the damn rain."

"I'm sorry."

"What?"

"I said I'm sorry." She stared at him until he turned toward her, so they faced one another. He wouldn't repeat himself again. He rolled his eyes as he watched her try to release a genjutsu that wasn't there. When she realized she couldn't dispel a nonexistent jutsu, she opened her mouth, then she closed it. "I went back, but you were gone. I didn't think you'd take Kimimaro with you. He should have stayed on the island, Kana."

"You went back?" He nodded. She didn't know if she trusted him or not. She had been too focused on escaping the island. It was possible. But he hadn't followed them. He'd had time to make an appearance, and he hadn't shown. She chose to ignore the part about Kimimaro, because she'd already told him the boy was staying. "Oh," she repeated, not knowing what else to say. "I'm still mad. You prioritized a total fucking stranger over us. And you hit me. You drew blood too. Thanks for that, you dick." She waited for an apology, so he pointed at himself.

"I'm not apologizing for that. You stabbed me."

"You heal!"

"I do, and you have a reminder not to stab me."

"We're not telling Kakashi." He didn't understand the sudden shift in the conversation, but the sound of Kimimaro softly talking reminded her that Kakashi had been unconscious since the fight. Kakashi wasn't aware of Obito’s decision to abandon them. She didn't want him to know. She didn't want him to feel how she felt, betrayed. "We're not telling him what you did. You've hurt him enough. If you want to apologize, go be there when he wakes up."

"You're still angry. I apologized."

"And you're not fucking forgiven!" Frustrated, she tugged on her own hair. She didn't understand why he made everything impossible. She didn't ask him to place the world at her feet. "I'm so stupid. I thought you'd changed. I thought, I thought you were capable of showing us you loved us, that we mattered more. If I had been in your position, I would have saved the person I loved, not some midget from Iwagakure. And don't fucking touch me! You don't get to touch me!" She punched him in the chest when he tried to take her into his arms. When he still tried, she punched him in the stomach. She crossed her arms over her chest and turned away from him. "If you even think about leaving, I'll hunt down Deidara and finish what I started. Go be with Kakashi."

"We won't need to recruit anymore. This was it. You have to understand how important this was. If you'd think instead of relying on your damn feelings," he began, cut off when she laughed at the words. He didn't want to hear what she had to say, so he continued. "What about me? What about what I want?"

"You're an idiot. Happiness slaps you in the fucking face and you still want more. What happens at the end of your story, Obito?"

"Everyone will live out their best lives, whatever their hearts desire."

"And what do you get? Will you have the life you desire?"

He stood and walked away, earning a throw pillow to the back of the head. There was no dramatic fight, no point when she tried to rip his beating heart from his chest, just an empty room, a wobbly coffee table, and all the things left unsaid.

Chapter Text

Hours later, Kana sat on the engawa and watched the moonlight filter through the thickening mist. After the power came back on, Kimimaro had fallen asleep while watching a documentary on desert wildlife; she still heard the voice of the announcer trying to make something exciting out of unbearable heat and endless sand. To her, the desert was an uninhabitable wasteland, but Kimimaro saw something worthwhile in the deserts of the Land of Wind. When the television went off, she frowned into the distance, knowing Obito meant to ruin her peaceful moment. Up until then, he'd shut himself into Kakashi's room, giving her space, space she really didn't need, even if she wanted it. The rain had finally stopped, but the grass was still wet. She didn't want to fight on wet grass; she didn't feel like falling on her face. She felt him as he hovered in the doorway, caught between the living room area and the engawa. He wanted her to acknowledge him, so she glanced over her shoulder at him, all he needed to approach her. It was time for him to bare his soul to her; it was time for her to forgive him, even if she never forgot his transgressions. He sat down beside her, though he didn't let his legs dangle over the side. His feet would have been in the wet grass.

"Did you really go back for us?"

"Yes. I also killed Kakashi's owner."

"I guess I should forgive you then."

"You never really forgive anyone. You hold grudges. You remember past wrongs and drag them up whenever it suits you."

He shrugged his shoulders when she looked at him. He was telling the truth. She'd always struggled with forgiveness. The concept didn't make sense to her. Old wounds from past deeds festered. Truly forgiving meant wiping the slate clean. She didn't know how to do that. He'd gone back for them. Maybe he deserved forgiveness. That didn't stop the combination of feelings curling in her gut. She was so tired of giving chances when he didn't deserve any more chances. Sighing, she leaned into his side and he wrapped an arm around her. She told herself that he'd gone back for them, but it didn't stop the bitterness or jealousy. Deidara bore the weight of her negativity, every emotion directed at him. It was easier to blame a stranger, so she did. He didn’t try to talk to her about her feelings toward Deidara. He didn’t try to discourage her from hating someone she didn’t even know. It was her prerogative, even if it was a childish thing to do. They sat together in a comfortable silence until the wind picked up and the branches of the trees swayed from side to side. In the distance, wind chimes sang.

“Loving you is extremely difficult. It’s also incredibly stupid,” Kana frowned, though she didn’t move away from him. He chuckled and she rolled her eyes at him, both of them knowing she wasn’t joking. He likely thought the same thing about her. “I wish you would have let me kill that little shit,” she mumbled, glaring into the trees. He squeezed her closer to himself and she gave up complaining about Deidara. He knew how she felt. He knew she would likely instigate a fight, giving herself the reason she needed to finally kill the kid. He let her think her angry thoughts until they finally slowed, then she slumped against him. “How’s Kakashi?”

“He stopped sweating. I changed his clothing and bedding, and I took the washcloth from his forehead. That eye really takes it out of him. I almost regret burdening him with it,” Obito frowned, thinking back on the cave-in. She couldn’t imagine Kakashi without the sharingan, even if it was constantly weighing him down. To him, the eye wasn’t a burden. It meant everything to him. It was what he thought was his last connection to Obito. “So Yumegakure decided to offer assistance to a known member of Akatsuki?” Her expression fell as she recalled the fact that she owed Enzo. She didn’t want to discuss the stupid agreement she’d made, but he had a right to know, because a favor from her could extend to a favor from Akatsuki.

“We exchanged favors, and they haven’t cashed in yet. Yes, I’m aware it was a stupid decision, but you weren’t here and we needed help." She shrugged one of her shoulders and waited for him to complain, but he hummed at her words, a vague response. She would have handled anger or mockery better. He lowered his hand and lightly squeezed her hip. Another vague response. "Are you upset?"

"I wasn't there. You did what you felt you had to do to ensure your safety. I hope he doesn't expect Akatsuki to fulfill that debt. We'll just kill everyone." She turned her head to look at him, but he still wore his mask. He was telling the truth, but his response should have been her response. Maybe they were both enablers. "Doesn't this place have a demon?"

"So you want story time," she joked, earning a snort from the man. The folktale about the three-headed guardian was interesting, something her sensei had shared with her before they parted ways. Back then, she hadn't believed in the monster. She'd believed the people were too superstitious. "Come inside?" He moved his arm from around her and they both left the engawa. Obito closed the shoji doors a little too hard, so he turned to see if he'd woken Kimimaro. "He sleeps like the dead, kind of like you, when you have a decent bed."

"Are you sure you aren't involved with him?"

"You're a dick."

They retreated to Kakashi's room, where Obito worked on placing seals and Kana set out the extra futon she'd requested. Overall, the ryokan was a nice place to stay, nicer than she'd expected, given Enzo's attitude towards them. She could only imagine the man's reaction to Obito’s presence. They slept close to Kakashi, their futons side by side. Although they were a bit cramped in the futon meant for a single person, Obito didn't complain. It forced him to hold her, which she allowed, although she elbowed him once for her satisfaction. The story behind Yumegakure was an interesting one; she remembered being in awe over the folktale. If dragons once roamed the earth, she could imagine a guardian beast identified as the Three Heads. She thought of the demon with the box of bliss and considered the possibility of yet another demon. No one could prove its existence.

"Not long after the Amagiri clan founded Yumegakure, the guardian beast known as the Three Heads appeared. It was before the Great War that the creature wrought havoc," Kana explained, content to lie there, with Obito’s arm around her waist. "It's said that the first cry of the Three Heads scorches mountains and plains, the second cry of the beast shakes the earth, and the third cry of the beast reduces everything to nothingness. The cries of the beast killed off whole clans and most of the civilians, until the Tenro clan finally sealed the monster. After the Tenro clan came into power, the Amagiri clan was banished."

"Do you believe that drivel?" He sounded skeptical, which was a surprise, considering the demon they'd faced. She turned over so they faced one another, allowing him to see her raised brow. "You do. Were the bodies recovered? Are any witnesses still alive? It's a little suspect, if you ask me." She flicked his nose and he jabbed her in the side with two fingers. At her back, Kakashi shifted in bed.

"Everyone from that time is dead, which is why outsiders call it a folktale. After the box of bliss and the Mountain's Graveyard, I do believe it's possible," she admitted, earning an eye roll from him. Kakashi groaned and she held her breath, while Obito partially sat up to see the man. Both of them were hoping Kakashi had woken up. "Is he?"

"Not yet. It should be sometime tonight or tomorrow morning. You felt his reserves?"

"I did. He's acting like he needs a true love's kiss."

"I already tried."

"You fucking liar. Lie down."

He stopped leaning on his elbow and went back to holding her. He told her about Sasori's reaction to Deidara. Sasori called him a brat and refused to acknowledge his talent with explosion release as any form of art. Hearing about it made Kana smile, which earned soft laughter from Obito. Maybe Sasori would kill the kid after all.

Chapter Text

“If you don’t slow down, you’re going to choke, and I’m not saving you,” Kana frowned, watching Kakashi stuff more food into his mouth. He had a healthy appetite, so she couldn’t really complain. While Obito attempted to speak to Kimimaro about the organization, Kana was in charge of overseeing Kakashi, as if the man needed a nurse at his bedside. “How are you going to repay us for carrying your sorry ass through the Forest of Confusion?” He swallowed his food and lightly tapped his chin with the back of his chopsticks, as if he were truly contemplating repaying them for caring for him. “Think faster, copycat ninja,” she teased him.

“I seem to have left my wallet—.” She laughed at his joke and he smiled for her, the curve of his lips making her feel better about their time in the Coliseum. Though he’d taken days to recover, he’d recovered. “Aren’t you hungry? I’m eating all of the food,” Kakashi commented, looking at the array of dirty dishes stacked on the right side of his bed tray. Kakashi had already eaten her food, which Obito promised to replace, once she’d complained to him. Instead of admitting that he’d already eaten her food, she shook her head. He still set his chopsticks down. “What happened after I passed out?”

“Not much. Obito left me in charge of the escape, and he joined us as soon as we were off the island,” she lied, shrugging her shoulders. Kakashi stared at her, clearly trying to glean something from her blank expression. She was a better liar. Still, his attention strayed from her face to the closed shoji door and he frowned. He likely doubted her, not due to her ability to lie, but due to Obito’s history with them. There was nothing she could say to reassure Kakashi that wouldn’t make him even more suspicious. Too many details hinted at a lie. “He actually helped take care of you, when we reached the ryokan. Surprising, isn’t it?”

“Did you have to tell him to take care of me?”

“Not entirely.”

“Hm. I thought he would have abandoned us on the island to whisk Deidara away, then made up some excuse for his actions, tried to shift the blame onto one or both of us, slept with you to clear the air, and convinced you to lie to me about everything in order to save his own ass. That sounds more believable.”

“He could never convince me to lie to you, so you’re clearly wrong. It would be my idea to lie to you,” she said, rolling her eyes to throw him off the trail of the truth. He chuckled at her words, taking them as an attempt at humor. She felt bad for lying to him, but he deserved to feel wanted and valued, even if she didn’t feel that way. She studied her nails, absently picking at dark-green polish she needed to reapply. “The next time you pass out, I’m leaving you where you are, just so you’re aware. It was a major inconvenience for us.”

“Ah, I’ll try to keep that in mind,” he said, picking up his chopsticks to continue eating. "Do you honestly think he'll let Kimimaro join the organization?" She made a face when she thought about her chances. There was a possibility that Obito would still choose to abandon the boy, and there wasn't anything she could do to alter the final decision. She could always ask him during sex, when he was distracted. She put a pin in that option. "I feel obligated to support him, since he helped me, but is he ready for Akatsuki?"

"Yeah. I think he is. Obito saw him fight. He chose Kimimaro, even if he meant to leave him on the island. If Obito denies him entry into the group, I think Orochimaru will kidnap him and experiment on him."

"No one deserves that fate. Are you willing to advocate for him? You know how Obito can be.”

“Oh I know exactly how that bastard can be, and yes, I’m willing to advocate for Kimimaro. He’s useful. Do I want him glued to my hip? Absolutely not.”

When she felt the two chakra signatures in the living room flare, she patted Kakashi’s shoulder and got to her feet. She had to intervene before the two had a pissing contest and broke everything in sight. She slid Kakashi’s door closed behind herself and walked into the living room in time to see Kimimaro cut through part of the couch. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she walked into the middle of the fight and grabbed Kimimaro by his left ear, throwing him off balance and ending the fight. He had the decency to look ashamed, as he immediately bowed his head to her, but she saw him send what should have been an intimidating look at Obito. Obito thought he could get a cheap shot in, but she blocked his blow and shoved him back, giving both of them the space they needed to calm down. From Kimimaro’s reaction, she assumed the talk had gone nowhere. Obito’s tense posture relaxed, though he continued glaring at Kimimaro. He’d seemed jealous, which she found equal parts amusing and annoying. He’d claimed he wouldn’t get jealous. Even though Kimimaro was way too young for her, Obito wouldn’t let the fight truly end. In his Madara mask, he looked the part of a villain.

“The answer is no.” Obito didn’t even pretend to consider his answer. Kimimaro looked defiant, then his attention shifted to her and she reluctantly gave up her hold on his ear. She thought he might try attacking Obito again, but he remained near her. “He can’t follow basic instructions. I have no use for him.” Kimimaro had obviously been told something similar, because he squared his shoulders to try and appear more confident in himself and his qualities. Still, Obito dismissed him with a sweep of his hand.

“You know that’s a lie. Kill off Deidara. He’d be a great partner for Sasori.”

“We’re not killing off Deidara. And if you try to kill him, I’ll break your arms and legs.”

“You won’t be touching her,” Kimimaro interrupted, stepping in front of Kana. She arched a brow at his behavior and leaned to the side to see around him. Obito looked furious, and his chakra matched the emotion revealed in his sharingan eye. Kana stepped around Kimimaro and he looked confused, clearly wondering why she wouldn’t want him to defend her. He wasn’t her servant, and she could handle herself. “Kana-sama, he threatened you,” Kimimaro slowly explained, as if he could talk her into standing down so he could defend her again.

“He’s always threatening me. It’s old news,” Kana shrugged, turning her attention back to Obito. Obito knew she disagreed with his decision before she even spoke, and that further irritated him. “You have to admit we owe him. He helped Kakashi and I escape the island and reach Yumegakure relatively unscathed. If you don’t allow him to join the organization, Orochimaru will find him and experiment on him. Is that how you thank someone for helping? He’s fucking useful. You know he’s useful. You’re just acting incredibly jealous.”

“I’m not jealous. I have no reason to be jealous. He’s no one,” Obito replied, further hurting Kimimaro. To be told he was useless and no one—it reminded him of the poor treatment he tolerated with En. He understood the relationship between Obito and Kana, though he didn’t acknowledge it out loud. He lowered his weapon and let the two speak, because it was less about him and more about Kana and Obito. “You need to remember your place, Kana,” Obito reminded her, his tone cold.

“Then I’ll fight you for it. If I win, he stays.” Obito laughed at her, and she clenched her fists at her sides. By that point, she had to hope that her eyes would grant her the power she needed to overcome his mangekyou. At her back, Kimimaro touched her elbow, reminding her that he was present. “Shut up. Let me do this,” she said, gritting her teeth. Obito’s laughter came to an end and he silently sized her up. He was taller and had more muscle, but she was faster and put everything she had into her taijutsu and kenjutsu. Fighting without her wakizashi was a setback, but not one that would prevent her from winning the fight.

“If I win, you’re being reassigned to Zetsu,” he informed her, his wicked smile hidden by his mask. She hesitated to agree to the terms. If Obito won, she would lose Kakashi, and she didn’t feel she had a right to decide without the man’s input.

“Deal,” Kakashi spoke up, standing in the doorway of his bedroom. She whipped her head in his direction and he smiled for her, his eyes closed with the expression. It was a real gamble. She didn’t want to work with Zetsu, not until she had the means to dispose of him. “Isn’t it like you to run into situations without thinking it through? Why is this different?” Chewing on her lower lip, she looked between Kakashi and Kimimaro, both seemingly supporting her decision to fight Obito.

“Deal,” she echoed, her attention returning to Obito. She didn’t see a hint of humor in his eye, which added to her nerves. He would likely fight with the intent to kill, and all because of what he declared wasn’t jealousy. He motioned to the door, indicating that he meant to fight her right that second. Kimimaro touched her elbow again, and she knew he encouraged her to change her mind, to consider him as worthless as Obito had declared. “Can I borrow your tanto, Kakashi?”

Chapter Text

They stood across from one another, both of them prepared to fight but unwilling to make the seal of confrontation. She didn’t want to offer him a single courtesy, and his obvious disinterest kept her on edge. When he wanted to fight, he was ruthless, and she had to think of him as an enemy, because he clearly saw her that way. Kimimaro helped steady Kakashi as he waited to declare the fight. Reluctantly, she offered Obito the seal of confrontation, but he still refused. Right after Kakashi called the beginning of the fight, Obito tried to wrap his manriki around her throat. She deflected with Kakashi’s tanto and channeled wind chakra to her blade, trying to cut right through the chain. Obito pulled the chain back before she could cut it and she went on the offensive. He jumped back for more distance and sent a fireball at her that she countered with wind release. Fire met wind and flames exploded in every direction, setting fire to some of the grass in the field. She replaced herself with a shadow clone that had an explosive tag on its back. While Obito fought the clone, she disappeared into the earth with the headhunter jutsu and waited for the signal. She tracked his chakra and knew the moment when the clone exploded. The attack had hit him, but he punched the earth and forced her to retreat, giving up on the headhunter jutsu.

His cloak was charred in places, and he patted out the bit of his cloak that still burned. He had good chakra reserves, even better with the introduction of wood release, and she knew she had above average reserves, so they traded ninjutsu until he forced her into close combat. She’d seen him fight in close combat, so she was confident she could take him, but he kept using his mangekyou to avoid her strikes. She did a quick-draw technique with her tanto, but he took the strike and punched her so hard she doubled over and vomited in the grass. He tried to strike her, but she jumped out of the way and doubled over once more, trying to get her stomach to stop rolling and her vision to stop blurring. He didn’t give her any time to recover, so she changed from using her sharingan to using her mangekyou. Avoiding her gaze wouldn’t save him, but he knew that. He kept interrupting her, her concentration constantly slipping. And while any other opponent would have been struck with an unrefined attack that could cause permanent brain damage, she chose not to do it to him. She showed him a mercy he didn’t show her. He slashed across her chest with a kunai and she retaliated by trying to slice open his gut. She cut through his cloak and into his skin, but it did nothing to deter him. He looked down at the bleeding wound and then at her.

The mercy she’d shown him was forgotten when he stabbed her in the chest. She’d moved enough so that he wouldn’t hit her heart, and she knew the blade barely missed her lungs. With his hold still on the kunai, she kneed him and punched him hard enough to send him stumbling back. She ripped the kunai from her chest and adjusted her taijutsu stance. He watched her blood fall onto the grass, and she took his momentary distraction to hit him with a genjutsu he quickly removed. It became a battle of genjutsu, where their eyes and chakra control spared them. Her eyes shifted to her eternal mangekyou and he fought to end the fight by sending two flame dragons at her that she countered with earth walls that exploded upon contact. She caught him in her genjutsu and he faltered for a moment. She thought about completely destroying his nervous system, but she settled for his heart. She put such chakra behind her attack that his heart stopped. She waited for him to drop, but his hand simply went to his chest. His heart wasn’t the weakness she thought it would be. He laughed at her as he threw lightning attacks that should have had her freezing. The ache in her scars fueled her. She used wind release: great breakthrough, completely flattening the grass and sending him sliding back several feet.

He fought her until she depleted enough of her chakra to rely solely on taijutsu. His taijutsu was flawless, even without the use of his mangekyou. In the end, their styles relied on the Uchiha style, so it was simple to block and counterattack. She threw him off by throwing everything into a punch that connected with his throat and collapsed his windpipe. When he realized the consequences of taking the hit, she kicked him in his side and he slid across the grass. He found his footing and she kicked his knee, forcing it to buckle on him. Instead of killing him when he dropped to one knee, she tried to rest her tanto against his neck, but he punched her in the thigh and then once in the chest. She fell right onto her back and he had a kunai at her throat, while she had her blade aimed at his right kidney. He looked up at Kimimaro, then down at her. Until that moment, she’d forgotten about the other two. He applied pressure to her throat, drawing a thin line of blood, so she struck him with a closed fist right in the kidney. They separated when Kakashi physically dragged Obito off of her. She sat up and touched her throat, then she scowled at Obito. No one had won the fight, but she felt like the winner as he pressed a glowing palm over his back. Kimimaro stopped by her side and extended a hand to help her to her feet. Obito slapped Kakashi’s hand aside when the man tried the same thing.

“We had a deal,” Kana frowned, one hand over her chest wound, already applying pressure. Obito looked at the blood slipping between her fingers, then he worked on healing his throat. For a few minutes, he didn’t answer her. He kept them at a distance and took care of himself, then he walked over to her. “We had a deal,” she repeated through clenched teeth. He looked at Kimimaro, clearly weighing the worth of a tie. They really hadn’t won. She didn’t know what that meant for her.

“You didn’t win.”

“Neither did you.”

“Never say I didn’t do anything for you. He won’t be staying with you. If you want him in the organization, that’s the agreement, and I’m being generous.”

She didn’t know how Kimimaro would react to the other members of the organization, but she considered the possibility of adding someone else to play the part of Kimimaro’s partner. The introduction of another pairing would give the organization the number of people necessary to take on one tailed beast each, and it would possibly remove the need for Konan and Pein to take part in the retrievals. Sighing, she made the seal of reconciliation as a show of her willingness to accept the terms. He didn’t make the seal, which pissed her off, but she bit her tongue and let the moment pass. His attitude was terrible, but she expected nothing less. He was generally a bastard, and playing the role of Madara made him even more of a bastard. She would save her harsh responses for the moment his mask came off. Until then, she dropped her hand and brushed past him, purposely knocking her shoulder into his. Kakashi tried to look at her chest wound, but she brushed past him too, leaving the three in the field to retreat to the ryokan, where she would attempt to treat the wound on her own and silently hate herself for not being a better medic. Her first-aid skills were passable and useful on the fly, but she wasn’t great. She would have an ugly scar that would anger her every time she saw it.

Kimimaro followed her. She could feel him trailing behind her, giving her enough space to make her think he wasn’t there. She thought she would lose him on the streets, but they were empty. She didn’t see a single person. None of the lamps were lit around the village, meaning the only light they had was the setting sun. When she reached the ryokan, she found it just as empty as the streets. The workers were absent, and the lights were off, as if it were closed, despite the unlocked doors. Waiting in the downstairs lobby, she let Kimimaro catch up with her, where he took in the same eerie scene. She had a flashback of Oshino, where hundreds of people simply vanished. With no workers in sight, she slowly began to explore the ryokan in depth. She entered every room, expecting guests somewhere within the establishment, but no rooms were occupied. Nothing about the scene made sense. She wanted to explore the rest of the village, to look for familiar holes leading deep into the earth, but she bumped right into Obito as she was leaving. He pressed a finger to his lips to signal for silence, then he physically turned her around and gave her a small shove to get her back into the ryokan. Kimimaro really didn’t appreciate him manhandling her, but chose to glower instead of instigating a fight. No one spoke until they were locked in their room.

“The villagers are gone,” Kakashi informed her. He still looked tired, but he wasn’t leaning on Kimimaro or Obito for support. At first, she didn’t understand him, too busy trying to make sense of something that was obvious to her. The only chakra signatures she felt were in the forest, with the Amagiri clan. There were more signatures than usual, but not enough to include the population of Yumegakure. “Ah, Madara seems to think it has something to do with the folklore of this village. He mentioned you would know more. Is this another case like the ones we investigated in the north?” When she gave Obito a dirty look, he stared at her, as if she were a bug getting crushed beneath his heel. She really wanted to flip him off, but she took a deep breath and focused on Kakashi.

“I don’t think so. The only chakra signatures in the area are in the Forest of Mythic Beasts. They disappeared in the span of a few hours. That’s impressive,” she shrugged. “We could split up and see if we can find any clues. We can meet up at the front of the ryokan in an hour.” It was more of a suggestion or a question, but she refused to change her inflection to indicate either one. Kimimaro opened his mouth to agree with her plan, which wasn’t a surprise, but Obito cut him off.

“Kakashi, take Kimimaro and explore the west side. Kana and I will take the east side. Don’t be late,” Obito instructed them, leaving the room before anyone could protest. Kimimaro took one look at Kakashi and politely bowed his head, silently accepting his role as Kakashi’s temporary partner. Kana would have preferred Kakashi or Kimimaro, and Obito likely knew that. She muttered under her breath as she followed after him. “You’re slow,” he greeted her, standing outside of the ryokan. With no one around to witness her act, she flipped him off and he snorted at her response. “Do you want me to heal your wound or not?”

“I’d rather bleed to death.”

“That can be arranged.”

“Cut the shit. Your Madara persona is an absolute piece-of-shit human being. We’re alone. Act right. Or do I need to punch you in the left kidney this time?” He rolled his eyes at her, but he didn’t argue. When she walked past him, he caught up to her and they walked side-by-side down the empty streets. She thought he might sneak a few looks at her, but he didn’t, so she purposely stepped on his left foot. He retaliated by swatting her ass. “Did you have to try to kill me? I didn’t leave you brain dead.”

“You stopped my heart,” he frowned, turning his head to see her profile. She continued staring straight ahead, ignoring the true statement. She’d tried killing him, but she told herself she would have done something to bring him back; she told herself the seal wouldn’t let him die, so she’d simply tested that solid theory. In the end, she still stopped his heart. “You’ve gotten better,” he complimented her, feeding right into her pride. She hated how she preened at the words. Surviving against him was proof of her achievements. In Kirigakure, she’d worried that her abilities would decline and she would be unable to reach her peak performance. “I might be a little jealous.”

“Very jealous,” she corrected him, not missing a beat. He stepped into one of the establishments to look around, so she waited outside for him. She should have laughed at his admission, but his jealousy reminded her too much of her own. Instead of killing Kimimaro, he’d tried to kill her. That was poor logic. When he rejoined her, she pursed her lips. “He’s only thirteen. What the hell would I do with a thirteen-year-old kid?” He didn’t answer her, so she huffed at him. The answer was simple. She wouldn’t do anything with a thirteen-year-old kid. She didn’t want to adopt him or make him into her bodyguard, though he was clingy enough for either of them. “You’re supposed to kill the other person, you know. You don’t kill the person you love. You kill the person interfering. It’s not complicated. With Kakashi, I killed Megumi,” she said, causing him to chuckle.

“Her name was Botan.”

“Same fucking thing.”

“I tried killing Kimimaro, but he wouldn’t die.”

“Keep trying, champ.” Her sarcastic response earned her a harder slap on the ass, so she swatted the back of his head. Even though she'd claimed she would rather bleed to death, he still healed her wound. She played the role of an ungrateful patient well. "Do you honestly believe in the Three Heads now?" He shrugged his shoulders, clearly thinking of the story she'd shared. The disappearances didn't align with the tale. There was no scorched earth, just the burnt fields where they'd had their spar. "You know we'll have to question the Amagiri clan, right? The leader, Gensui, is a dick, but he easily manipulates others. I wouldn't be surprised if he orchestrated the disappearances."

They explored their half of the village and found the same empty streets and homes. At the edge of the village, they walked to the beginning of the Forest of Confusion and looked into the darkness. Kana saw something move, but it happened so fast that she doubted herself. She used her sharingan to find other instances of movement and caught something from the corner of her eye. Beside her, Obito noticed the same shifting shadows. A village full of shinobi wouldn't walk to their deaths. Kana told herself that made no sense. And then a twig snapped and her hand went to Kakashi's tanto. Obito took two steps into the forest before she gripped the back of his cloak and dragged him back. Something was wrong. She couldn't sense any signatures, but the mist and the nature chakra could have masked the presence of people. She highly doubted it, but it was possible. Obito clearly didn't appreciate her hold on his cloak, but she refused to let him enter and risk falling victim to the forest.

"We can't see anything through this mist and I'm going to guess that your sensory skills are as dull as mine."

"It's the suicide forest, but Kimimaro tried to kill me instead of himself. Excuse me if I don't want to be strangled to death with your manriki."

"I would snap your neck, not strangle you."

"On second thought, go in alone. I'll collect your remains in the morning."

"Let's go, Kana-sama. I'll protect you," he teased, making her blush. She was thankful he couldn't see her red cheeks. For good measure, she slapped his back a little too hard and led the way into the forest.

Shadows darted around them, retreating behind tree trunks and hiding amongst the branches. She couldn't sense them, but she could see more of them. The shadows made her wonder if they'd stumbled upon ghosts. When she heard the sound of Obito’s manriki, she drew her tanto, thinking he meant to attack her. Instead, Obito lashed out at a shadow and the chain wrapped around something solid. He pulled on the chain until he dragged the shadow figure closer. What he revealed made no sense. The paper seal on the captured man's forehead was one she'd never seen before. He was clearly a puppet, and the forest was full of them. They'd walked into a trap.

Chapter Text

"The seals require a key that we don't have."

"Can't you fucking figure something out?"

"I'm not the magician you think I am."

Growling, Kana grabbed one of the villagers by the back of his shirt and the waist of his pants and threw him at Obito. The man passed right through Obito and slammed into a tree, but he got to his feet as if he hadn't been injured at all. Kana and Obito had tried breaking and severing their legs, but the villagers crawled towards them, and when they broke and severed arms, the people snapped at them with bared teeth, like wild animals. Kana used wind release to send a line of them flying, but they quickly recovered and returned. The first villager to use ninjutsu was burnt to a crisp by her fireball. She had no qualms about killing them all, even if she owed Enzo for taking them in. It took her too long to realize that there were no members of the Tenro clan in the masses. When she came to that conclusion, she whistled to gain Obito’s attention. He swung his manriki around himself to strike a woman in the head, and the sweep of the chain forced people away, buying him time.

"It has to be the Amagiri clan. None of these people are from the Tenro clan and there was an increase in chakra signatures in the Forest of Mythic Beasts." A child punched her in her liver and she retaliated by snapping the girl's neck. The girl was down for several minutes, but she recovered and tried attacking again. "I think we need to regroup. This is pointless. They're practically mindless zombies. Killing them does nothing, unless we burn them all to ash or chop them to pieces."

Obito wrapped his chain around the child's throat and yanked, sending the girl onto her back, where he proceeded to drag her toward him. Kana used a body flicker to sever the girl's head, freeing Obito’s manriki, but the girl's body continued moving around, and her head snapped its teeth at them. Kana kicked the head away and Obito grabbed her elbow. He tried to get them out of the forest, but his mangekyou dropped them in the same area. He gave up trying when Kana grabbed his right hand and dragged him into a run. The villagers became shifting shadows again, pursuing them through the mist. Exiting the forest, Kana slammed into Kakashi's chest and he steadied her on her feet. The villagers approached the edge of the forest, but they didn't enter into the village limits. Kana felt nothing but negative energy and thick nature chakra when she tried sensing the group. She theorized that the seals used nature chakra in some way, but the seal was too complicated for her. They needed the key Obito mentioned. That was all she understood.

"Kana-sama, we found this girl sneaking around. She says she's from the Tenro clan. Her father is Enzo." Kimimaro presented a girl with her wrists bound behind her back. Kana recognized the girl's facial markings and hair color, but she made no move to free the girl.

Obito grabbed the girl by the fur collar on her kimono top and dragged her toward himself, her sandals scraping along the ground. "Start talking," he ordered, his sharingan burning in comparison to her amber eyes. Her mouth dropped open as she connected the dots between his lineage and his eye. "Tick tock." He ripped the happuri-style faceplate from her head and threw it on the ground, where he crushed it beneath his right foot.

"My name is Tenro Ryuka and I'm going to complete my father's last command to release the Three Heads on the Amagiri clan and save the villagers!" She announced it with such passion and conviction, and Obito responded by shoving her away from him. Kimimaro caught her before she landed on her back. "I knew my father made a mistake by letting you into our village!"

"I go where I please," Obito replied, shrugging. "Kana and I came to the same conclusion. The Amagiri clan is behind the disappearances. The villagers are trapped in the Forest of Confusion, where they're under the influence of a seal. We eliminated some of them, but their deaths were only permanent if we burnt their bodies or we chopped them into tiny pieces." Ryuka struggled in Kimimaro’s hold, her wrists bleeding as she fought to free her hands for seals. Kana understood her anger, so she knocked the girl unconscious with a quick strike to the temple. "She could have led us to the Three Heads, Kana."

"There's a folktale that a three-headed guardian beast roamed the land, destroying and killing, while the Amagiri clan ruled Yumegakure. The Tenro clan supposedly sealed the beast away and banished the Amagiri clan, blaming them for the poverty, misfortune, and destruction. Apparently, Madara is now a believer. And to be fair, she wouldn't have helped us with shit," Kana supplied. She grabbed a handful of Ryuka's purple hair and yanked the girl's head back to make sure she'd successfully knocked the girl out. Pleased, she let the girl's head down.

"Kakashi, are you well enough to fight?" Kana already hated Obito’s line of thought, but she waited for Kakashi to lie. Kakashi clenched his fists a few times, then he closed his eye. When he looked at Obito, he nodded. She didn't believe the man for a second, and Obito saw her doubt in her expression. "He said he's well enough to fight. If he's not, he'll learn not to lie, won't he? Kakashi and Kimimaro will enter the Forest of Mythic Beasts first. Kana and I will split up in the forest and approach from the sides. If something goes wrong, signal us." Kana caught his right hand before he could start walking.

"You all need to know about the Amagiri clan. They fight with poison. Stay back and avoid any insects they summon. When you kill the insects, they emit a poisonous cloud. We don't have the antidote and the medics are currently in the forests. Don't get fucking poisoned," she stressed, addressing them all. When Kimimaro was distracted, Kana squeezed Obito’s hand, then she let it go. Instead of leading, along with Obito, she stayed beside Kakashi and allowed Kimimaro to trail behind them. "Here," she said, removing the tanto and sheath from her back. He protested, but she put it on him anyway.

"Your sword is gone," Kakashi reminded her, adjusting the placement of his tanto. She wrinkled her nose at the reminder, then she noticed Obito had pulled his manriki from his right sleeve and tossed it in her direction. She caught the weighted chain and tested it on her palms. "Do you even know how to use that? I've never seen you with a weighted chain." It was odd that Obito knew things about her that Kakashi didn't.

"She's good with it. I intend to use my gunbai," Obito said, words spoken over his shoulder. Kakashi frowned, and Kana knew that he was tired of the show being put on. Madara was the complete opposite of Tobi, though they both had their frustrating qualities. "If you can't handle your own in this fight, you should rethink your position in Akatsuki, boy." He looked back at Kimimaro and she knew they made eye contact because she felt the stirring of Kimimaro’s dance. Obito huffed a laugh and faced forward, giving his back to Kimimaro. Kana picked up a small stone from the ground and threw it at Obito’s head, but it passed right through him.

The Forest of Mythic Beasts wasn't as intimidating as the Forest of Confusion, but the trees were larger, along with most other plant life. There were owls in the forest that called out, reminding Kana of the fact that animals roamed the forest. In the night, with the heavy mist hovering near the canopy, the forest forced them onwards. Before they reached the first chakra signatures, Obito motioned for them to split up. Kakashi offered her a reassuring smile, then he and Kimimaro continued down the main path. A large spider dropped down from a tree to her right and captured a dragonfly struggling in its nearly invisible web. With everyone else on the move, she masked her chakra, stepped around the massive spider web, and made her own path through the underbrush.

The first person she encountered was a teenager around Ryuka's age. It made her wonder if they should have dropped her body at the forest entrance or used her as bait. She thought he was a member of the Amagiri clan, but he lacked the facial markings of the clan. The hood he wore should have been a sign, but she couldn't place it. She dropped down behind him and prepared to strangle him with the manriki, but he tried to headbutt her. She struck him with the weighted end of the chain and he fell onto his hands and knees. She tried approaching, but he performed a jutsu she'd never seen before and chakra rushed at her along the ground. She jumped into a tree to avoid being hit, which gave him time to recover.

"One of the outsiders," the boy commented, his pale, green eyes clear to her in the dark. He reached for his mask, but she struck his hand with the chain. "Are you working with the Amagiri clan?" He meant to distract her, but she'd thought he would reach for the mask again; instead, he used the summoning technique to summon two monsters. In the smoke following the summoning, the boy vanished, leaving her with two large muscular creatures. She still couldn't think of his clan name, but it no longer mattered. He was gone.

The creatures she fought had huge fists, so every strike shattered the earth. The noise they made began to attract attention, so she gave up the idea of stealth and hung the manriki over her shoulders so she could make the hand seals for a fireball. One large palm blocked her fireball, but she followed the attack with wind that knocked them both off balance. The forest floor shook as they landed, and she trapped them with an earth swamp. When they couldn't free themselves, they vanished in puffs of smoke. The flying insects arrived before the people, so she stayed at a distance and threw shuriken. Her use of ninjutsu had been too much following her spar with Obito. On her own, she had no choice but to rely on long distance and quick escapes.

When she was trapped, bone bullets took down an insect poised to attack her, and an arm wrapped around her waist. Two quick flicker techniques had her away from the poison cloud produced by the insect's death. "Shouldn't you be dealing with Gensui?" It was all the greeting they received from her as Kakashi released his hold on her waist.

Kimimaro finished off the remaining insects, then he and Kakashi fought the Amagiri members that had been pursuing her. She blew their poison mist away with the last wind release technique she could spare, then it was up to Kakashi and Kimimaro. She tried studying the corpses of the insects, but they quickly crumbled away, leaving no trace of their existence. Before they had the chance to regroup, a loud cry echoed through the forest. Kana watched the leaves crumble and turn to ash, then the trees began to smoke, as if the sound alone had scorched the earth.

"It's real," she whispered in awe. Kimimaro finished killing the last Amagiri shinobi, while Kakashi stood at her side and stared into the distance.

The Three-Headed Guardian Beast was clear through the dead trees. It stood at the top of a volcano outside the limits of Yumegakure. The volcano had been dormant, but it had come to life at the creature's cry. Unlike the description offered in the folktale, the guardian beast had armor covering almost its entire body. It was easily the scariest thing she'd ever seen. And the second head cried into the quiet night, the sound piercing. With that, the ground shook and split open, the gaping lines like a spider web stretching out from the volcano. When the third head opened its mouth, a fireball prevented it from reducing the area to nothingness. She saw the swing of Madara's famed gunbai, and her expression turned grim.

"He is the stupidest human being I have ever had the misfortune of knowing! What the fuck does he think he's doing?"

"What he does best, I'm afraid—getting into trouble," Kakashi sighed. "This is a terrible idea and we're going to regret this, but let's go." Kakashi squeezed her shoulder, then she looked back at Kimimaro. The boy finally noticed Obito fighting the beast, but he didn't look afraid of the monster. He dropped the corpse he had by the front of its shirt and stood beside Kakashi. "You don't have to join us, Kimimaro."

"If Kana-sama is going, I'm going. Please lead the way, Kakashi-san."

Chapter Text

The magma bubbled to the surface, where the lava flowed through the cracks brought on by the beast’s second cry. The vents stretched in every direction, and made for an arduous journey to the volcano. When they passed through the village, they saw whole streets split in half. The vents sent molten lava in every direction, and homes and businesses near the vents easily caught fire. The village would take a long time to recover, if it recovered at all. In the distance, the ryokan burned. The flames consuming it were bright and wild in the night. Kana thought of the beautiful baths they hadn’t enjoyed and the fine room they barely had the chance to appreciate. Yumegakure had been a picturesque village, with traditional homes and sett-paved streets and bridges. There was history in every part of the village, and it was being devoured by flames. In the distance, the beast fired a ball of chakra from its mouth that completely obliterated an entire street. Obito countered with lightning release, but Kakashi easily outperformed him with the nature transformation. It was fuel for them, the encouragement they needed to pick up the pace, even if they were low on chakra and likely of no use. Kakashi had more chakra, but she could use her sharingan, if needed; the one with the most chakra was Kimimaro, and he knew it.

As they ascended the narrow pathway leading to the volcano, the earth shook beneath their feet and more vents opened. Kana wondered if the village would drown in lava before the third cry reduced it to nothingness. Behind them, part of the mountainside collapsed, taking the pathway with it. There was no easy escape for them, but Kana cared more about fighting the Three Heads than their future descent. Kana took the lead from Kakashi and they barely managed to make any progress before they lost another part of the pathway. When they reached the top, the heat from the volcano was overwhelming. Kana took off her cloak and threw it aside, then she readied her manriki to capture one of the three heads. From where she stood, she could see the ledge leading into a cave, where the beast must have been sealed. It fought as if none of its strength had been lost, as if it had been waiting for the moment to finish what it started all those years ago. Kimimaro worked on long range attacks that distracted the beast, while Kakashi joined Obito. As soon as the Three Heads turned on Kimimaro, she threw the manriki and the chain wrapped around one of the heads, secured around its neck. She planted her feet, but the beast had too much strength. She held it for as long as she could, which allowed Obito to lash out with his gunbai. Kimimaro managed to pierce the armor the beast wore, his bone bullets breaking right through.

“I need to get to them. I have an idea,” Kana called to Kimimaro. His expression darkened as he pulled bones from his body, the bloody openings in his skin still unsightly. He used his bones like spears, one piercing the armor around the beast’s chest. Its attention returned to Kimimaro, while she stepped to the edge of the volcano and used the chain to lower herself to the ledge where Kakashi and Obito stood. “You’re fucking insane. You don’t jump into a volcano and battle an all-powerful mythical beast!” She slapped Obito’s chest and he grunted at her. Kakashi stopped her from striking him again. The beast cried again and the lava rising to the surface began to rise up as bubbles of lava, where the bubbles hovered in the air before they began to circle the beast. “So is your piece of shit gunbai going to protect us from being burnt alive by lava?”

“You aren’t helping.”

“Fine. Do either of you have any ninja wire?”

“What do you plan on doing with ninja wire?”

“We can create lassos with ninja wire and weigh it down with a kunai or two. It’s a cheap manriki. If we can hold it in one place, one of us can attack it. I’m talking about you, Madara.”

Kakashi rooted through his kunai pouch until he produced a roll of ninja wire, while Obito went to assist Kimimaro. With both of them battling the Three Heads, Kana had Kakashi help her fashion two lassos and weighed them down with kunai. Kakashi tested his lasso in his hand, tugging on the ninja wire to test its strength. She’d never relied on ninja wire to win a fight, but she planned on using it then. She tore off the bottom part of Kakashi’s Akatsuki cloak and wrapped it around a few times, testing it to see if it would work like a glove to protect Kimimaro’s hands. It was a terrible plan, and they would end up bleeding, without a doubt, but she tried. She and Kakashi ascended the steep incline from the ledge to the top of the volcano and rejoined Obito and Kimimaro. Kana explained her idea to Kimimaro and handed over his lasso and the strips she instructed him to wrap around his palms. The ninja wire didn’t have to last long, just long enough to give Obito the opening he needed for one major blow. They dodged lava and balls of chakra until they had a slim opening to enact her plan. They hit the necks of the beast and held firm, and Obito waited for the beast to send another ball of chakra that he sent back at it with his gunbai. After that, Kakashi’s ninja wire snapped and Kimimaro lost his grip. She had to pull her chain back or risk losing it. And the beast wasn’t dead. The hit had destroyed the chest plate and the armor on the three heads, but the armor along its back and its tough skin had saved it.

“If we can lure it away from the volcano, I can perform the Dance of the Seedling Fern, like I did in the Forest of Confusion. Without most of its armor, it’s vulnerable,” Kimimaro offered, suggesting another plan that would likely fail. As expected, the creature refused to leave its spot above the volcano, where it hovered in the air like an old-world god. No amount of attacks and withdrawals lured the beast into pursuing them. With her plan and Kimimaro’s plan gone, Kakashi had an opportunity to voice himself.

“I can get it into kamui,” he said, as if he had the chakra to use the technique on such a large scale. And in kamui, they would still have to defeat the beast. The most his plan would do was cripple him with major chakra exhaustion or kill him entirely, and remove the beast from the village, sparing whatever was left of Yumegakure. She didn’t care enough about the village to risk it.

“Your idea is stupid. The answer is no. If you even try it, I’ll gouge out that eye,” Kana frowned, her attention returning to the lava slowly circling around the beast. They were forced to separate to dodge the lava balls, then the beast targeted her, and she was forced to use an earth wall that further tested the crumbling earth. The ball of chakra blew right through her wall, but Obito had grabbed her and jumped to another location. The spot where she once stood was nothing but a smoking dent in the earth. “Chakra signatures are emerging from the forest, and there’s an incoming team of shinobi. Two of them are familiar. Of course those losers would show up,” she said, muttering the last part. “It’s Tenzo and Yugao, so it’s an ANBU team. The village must have called for help before this started.”

“Tenzo?” Kakashi heard the name and looked off into the distance, as if he could feel Tenzo’s chakra signature. Kana didn’t really like their weird relationship, so she snapped her fingers in front of his face. “They’ll prioritize the mission, so they’ll be willing to work with us to defeat the Three Heads. At the end, they’ll try to capture or kill us. But that’s a worry for later,” Kakashi said, adding some cheer to the last part of his words. His false cheer disappeared when Obito took a blast of chakra that was blocked by the gunbai. “Tenzo’s wood release will be helpful. I can use raikiri once. The armor is gone, so it will go right through its chest. We need to work with them,” he frowned, dragging Kimimaro out of attack range.

They were covered in sweat, dirt, and blood, and some parts of Kimimaro’s shoes had begun to melt, where he’d been too close to one of the vents. Kana pursed her lips, then she nodded in agreement. She didn’t want to work with Tenzo—she didn’t like Tenzo—but his wood release was an asset. Obito deflected another shot of chakra and sent it back as a wind release attack that wore on the beast’s tough skin. The shinobi of the village stood at the base of the volcano, unable to ascend the unsteady earth, making them useless. Some sent giant insects to help in the fight, but the beast was immune to poisons. In the end, the poisons became a risk for her group, so Kana began striking them down with shuriken to keep the poison clouds away. When Tenzo’s team arrived, she knew that he’d been promoted to ANBU captain, likely to fill the position left when Kakashi defected. Yugao tried to attack Kana, but Tenzo called her code name and her blade collided with Kimimaro’s bone blade. Kana didn’t like Yugao either.

“Our priority is defeating this monster and saving Yumegakure. They’ll have to wait,” Tenzo commanded, his team reluctantly responding to show their acceptance of his instructions. Tenzo and Kakashi stared at one another for a few seconds too long, which didn’t go unnoticed by either group.

“I need you to restrain and bring it closer, so I can use raikiri,” Kakashi said, earning a solid nod from Tenzo. For a moment, Kana doubted Kakashi had defected. He still fit in with his team. Tenzo still answered to him. While Tenzo and Kakashi worked together on their plan, Kana and Kimimaro joined Obito in playing distraction. Kana felt the wood release come to life, the mixture of earth and water in perfect harmony. She wondered if Obito had that type of power. “Now!”

Kakashi approached the wooden cage containing the beast, his hand alight with the telltale sign of his lightning cutter technique. His chakra was crisp, reminding Kana of a chilly winter morning, and the air felt charged. One hit with raikiri went right through the beast’s tough skin and into its chest cavity. The lava bubbles in the air fell back into the volcano, and two of the heads fell, but the main head remained, and it cried for the third time. In a single second, it felt as if all of the air had been sucked from her lungs. She opened her mouth for a gasp, and then they were blown away from one another. They flew through the air, some of them trying to stop themselves from tumbling down the volcano, while others were freefalling. Tenzo grabbed Kakashi, and she tried to reach for Kimimaro, but Obito slammed into her. The whole village was reduced to rubble, and they landed hard when they finally connected with the ground. Kana couldn’t breathe. She felt as if her lungs would never work again. And then her head slammed against the hard ground and she saw spots. The world quickly faded in and out over and over again, until she saw Obito leaning over her. His mask had a nice crack down the center, and she found herself thinking about where he even obtained the stupid masks he wore. She faintly heard him calling her name, then she heard other voices join in. Chakra signatures swarmed around them, all of the people frantic. Vaguely, she registered that she couldn’t move her body. The only thing she could do was blink, so she did.

People around her were screaming and crying. She heard the sudden volume of the world around her as if the volume had been cranked up to the maximum level from absolute zero. Obito was still next to her, looking down at her. His hand was in the center of her chest, keeping her from sitting up, so she didn’t bother trying. He saw blood dripping from the bottom of his mask, and there were cuts and tears in his clothing, so he’d been caught in the blast too. She wanted to see Kakashi. She needed to know if he and Kimimaro were alright. She made a small move to sit up and her whole body felt as if she were covered in one giant bruise. As she slowly moved her limbs, making sure that she could move them without too much difficulty, she noticed the back of her head felt wet. She’d likely split her head open when she’d collided with the ground. She was one of the lucky ones. Some people were thrown so far that they were trapped in the leveled village. She smelled a lot of burnt flesh, where others had been thrown into the lava. The scene was horrific, so she stopped looking around and focused on Obito’s face.

“Kana?” She heard him say her name, so she groaned in response, all she could manage with the pain seeping through the numbness and stiffness. He turned her head to the side and she knew he saw the full damage to her skull. Any medics were likely focusing on the worst cases, bypassing anyone they deemed hopeless.

“Kakashi?”

“He landed in a pond. He’s fine. Kimimaro landed in a tree. He’s fine.”

“It hurts.”

“I know. It’s going to hurt more because I need to move you. We can’t stay here.”

“No,” she moaned in pain, trying to pull away from him when he slipped his hands beneath her. He took her in his arms and she screamed in pain, her cries just more noise for the chaos. She thought she heard Kakashi’s voice, but she didn’t want to move her head. Moving her head gave her more black spots. Every step felt jarring. She felt Kakashi’s chakra flare and she choked on an inhale. Obito was quick to change course and head in Kakashi’s direction. “It’s Tenzo, isn’t it?” They arrived in time to see Kakashi punch Tenzo in the face, sending the man onto his ass. Tenzo tried to use wood release to restrain Kakashi, but Kimimaro cut through the wood before it had a chance to close around Kakashi. “Please kill him.”

“He’s the second coming of the Shodaime,” Obito joked, making her laugh and moan in pain. She leaned her head against his shoulder and he stepped in front of Kakashi and Kimimaro. He turned his back to Tenzo and she knew the man was pissed at the show of disrespect. “We’re leaving. I don’t care what kind of relationship you had with these people, Kakashi. If they pursue us, kill them,” Obito instructed, earning a nod from Kimimaro. Kakashi looked sad, but he didn’t argue against the command. If Tenzo meant to fight them, they didn’t need to show the man mercy.

Kana clenched her eyes shut when Obito resumed moving. She knew he wanted to get away from the remains of Yumegakure, but she wanted to lie down and go to sleep. He would likely rouse her until she threw a fit, just like he’d done when he’d cracked her skull. She felt someone touching her scalp and she cried out in pain, but the touching didn’t stop. Kakashi was looking at the damage, and his expression told her all she needed to know. Obito was likely trying to get them somewhere safe enough where he could try and put her back together again. She fell to pieces too often. One day, there would be nothing to put back together.

They talked around her, and she heard some snippets of conversation, but the throbbing of her head overpowered her ability to focus and listen. She didn’t know where they were going, but she didn’t care. Anywhere was better than the ruins of Yumegakure. The last thing she heard before she lost consciousness was the word critical. That made a lot of sense.

Chapter Text

The incessant beeping cut right through the fog lingering in her mind. Opening her eyes took too much effort, and she was rewarded with blinding white in every direction. White walls. White ceiling. White floor. The dimmed lighting in the room and the closed curtains kept her eyes from melting away. She expected a cheap hotel room, not the intensive care unit of a hospital; with the overwhelming sights and sounds, she would have preferred the cheap hotel room. Her bed had some lift at the head, allowing her to rest at a comfortable angle, but the mattress was too firm and the room was freezing, even with two blankets. Her mouth was dry, but her water and ice chips were on a tray out of her reach. She tried stretching, but her muscles protested instantly. She hissed in pain, then she swore and raged as she stared at the two cups. With her foot, she knocked the tray off the table and turned onto her side, which was just as sore as her back. She'd probably broken ribs, which wasn't a surprise. She recalled the hard impact and the sounds her body made, and she felt sick to her stomach. She wanted someone to tell her how long she'd been unconscious, but she had no visitors and no one checked on her. Kana had to disconnect all of her wires and rip out her IV to finally get someone in her room, and then there was a struggle as the nurse tried to stop the blood spurting from her arm. Yes, she would have preferred the cheap hotel.

"If you don't cooperate, I'll have to restrain you," the nurse warned her, already done with her behavior. She tried to look intimidating, but she ended up slumping against the pillows the nurse placed at her back. "That's what I thought. Now you have some visitors, if you behave. These gentlemen were very worried about you." Kana gave her a flat look and then turned her head away, silently dismissing the annoying woman. She heard the woman muttering, but she didn't care. "Keep the visit short and sweet, Nakamura-san. She needs her rest. That construction accident was horrific."

"Yes, she's lucky we found her. Thank you, Amano-san." Kimimaro was polite and straightforward, which earned him first access to her room. He looked at her bandaged head and frowned, then he claimed the chair at her bedside. "You were unconscious for three days. We're in the Land of Snow. It's bright here. I really don't like it," he commented, looking her over once more. She felt as if she were under a microscope. Unlike her, he was unscathed, most likely due to his kekkei genkai.

"I want out of here."

"Kakashi-san told me you would say that, but it's best if you remain here."

"I'll kill everyone in this hospital, and then you."

"Madara mentioned you would likely threaten me. I still think you need to stay here and recuperate. The damage was extensive."

Kana wrinkled her nose at him and turned her head away, refusing to acknowledge his words. She was alive, which was better than most of the population of Yumegakure. Traveling to the Land of Snow was a good idea, considering Obito’s hold on the nation, but she still didn't want to waste away in a hospital bed. Kimimaro tried holding a conversation with her, but she refused to answer him, too upset over his quick dismissal of her demand to leave and her following threat. Kimimaro bid her a quiet goodbye and left her alone, so she frowned at the ceiling. She shouldn't have ignored him. She didn't think she would get another visitor, because of her poor attitude, but Kakashi lightly knocked on her door and poked his head into the room. Sighing, she struggled while turning onto her side to face him and he stroked her cheek. He moved the chair closer to her bed before he sat down, then he looked her over.

"Kimimaro mentioned you threatened to kill everyone," Kakashi said, his visible eye crinkled near the side to show his amusement. She huffed and rested her left hand between her cheek and her pillow. "You lost a lot of blood. You look better now," he informed her, leaning forward to run a hand through her messy hair. She needed to wash it, but being in the hospital prevented her from doing that. She felt bad for worrying her small team, even worse for Kakashi seeing Tenzo again. She wondered if they had some kind of relationship before her own defection.

"I'm alive," she said, as if that was enough for them. He sighed, but he quietly agreed with her. "Did you love Tenzo?" He met her eyes and they stared at one another for too long. She doubted he would ever answer her. He'd always emphasized that it was friendship, that Tenzo was just odd. "I saw the way you looked at him," she continued, frowning at him. He looked away and she read a lot in his reluctance to look at her. Maybe she'd always sensed something. He'd lied to her, but they'd never been too close in Konoha.

"We had a very brief relationship when we were younger. I moved on, and he didn't. After that, I considered him my friend. That's all. I met you. I met Botan." She didn't like hearing the words, but she had no ownership over his past. They'd both done things, moved on from other people, moved on to other people. "He thinks he can save me and that everything will go back to his idea of normalcy. He's wrong." Kakashi shrugged his shoulders, being dismissive of his past relationship, but she'd seen his expression. He missed Tenzo; whether he missed the man as a friend or a lover didn't matter.

"You lied."

"You've lied to me too."

"When am I getting out of here?" The change of subject made Kakashi relax his tense posture. She'd heard all she needed to hear. In the end, he'd chosen Obito and her. Kakashi sorted through the notes on the clipboard at the end of her bed, but it was clear he didn't find the answer. "Where's Obito?"

"He got into an argument with your doctor and she called the police on him, so he'll be a little late," Kakashi admitted, a sigh following the words. She laughed, but her laughter ended in a groan of pain. Her head truly felt as if she'd split her skull open. "We didn't think you'd wake up. You went into a coma, and then your doctor thought you had brain damage. You're lucky." She hummed at the news, silently wondering if she should test her luck gambling.

"I heard you landed in a pond."

"I fractured my right arm, but it's fine now. You don't have to make light of this, you know. No one will blame you for being shocked or scared."

"It's over now though, isn't it? Shock and worry won't change anything. I can't go back and fix what happened. I'm alright, Kakashi. I don't die easily."

"I can tell. You're too stubborn," he smiled, lightly patting her side. She groaned and he pulled his hand back, forgetting her ribs. "I'll see if I can convince the doctor to release you. Obito said we'll be staying here for a while. He's been better. I think you scared him too, but he's as bad as you are at admitting it." Kakashi stood and pressed his masked lips to her cheek, then he turned to leave. She wanted him to stay, but she was too proud to say the words aloud. When he left, she sighed through her nose and closed her eyes.

Hours later, a commotion in the hallway had her opening her eyes. When the shouting stopped, the door to her room flew open and Obito marched in, slamming the door behind him. The door shut hard enough to rattle the drab painting on the wall beside the door. She arched a brow at him and he pretended to brush dirt from his black clothing. He still wore his Madara mask, which was disappointing, but the fact that he still visited her let her know that he cared. He realized she was staring at him, so he approached her bed and dropped into the chair beside her. Neither of them spoke, which left the incessant beeping echoing in the small room. The hospital in the hidden village was nice, but the rooms were smaller than those in Konoha. Nothing about the room made her want to stay there any longer than she had to.

Obito looked over her chart, then he tossed the clipboard across the room, where it put a dent in the far wall. The papers had been unhelpful. Kakashi had learned the same thing.

"I wanted the knowledge of the seal. Ryuka unsealed the beast and Gensui was absorbed by it, which made it more dangerous. It was a poor decision to stay and fight."

"I knew it was stupid and reckless to join you in the fight, but I did anyway. I thought we might as well die together, but here we are. I'm saying that Kakashi, Kimimaro, and I knew what we were getting into."

"You wouldn't wake up."

"I'm awake now."

He didn't look pleased with her response, but he didn't lose his temper with her. She was reckless with her own life, as if it didn't matter to her at all, even though it did. Someone knocked on the door, but Obito yelled at them to get lost, and the knocking stopped. He ran a hand over his head and slumped in the chair, showing his own exhaustion. She rested her right hand on his knee and he put his hand over hers. She hoped that Kakashi had the charm needed to get her out of there. One visitor at a time was ridiculous.

"You're a pain in the ass," he muttered, closing his hand around hers. She wondered if he'd carried her the entire way. He could be a decent person sometimes, so it was possible. "I was arrested, so I broke out of jail to be here. I take over the Land of Snow and they thank me by arresting me. This place is terrible," he complained, making her smile. They'd had good times in the nation, and they would have more, if she had any say.

"Did you use your Madara voice? It's nice. Very sultry," she joked, earning quiet laughter from him. She could tell that he'd paraded as Madara. He meant to keep up the persona until Kimimaro left them. "Kakashi is trying to get me out of here. You know I'll just go out the window, if I have to."

"There are bars. It's a shinobi hospital. They know people like to run away," he informed her, nodding to the bars on the exterior of the window. She glanced over her shoulder and her mood darkened. She couldn't threaten people because Obito didn't give a damn what she did to the hospital staff and patients. "I can't stay with you." She clicked her tongue and contemplated turning her back to him. It was like him to run off. It was expected.

"I want you to stay. Please stay. I don't give a fuck about your other responsibilities. Send a clone. Send a letter."

"Fine."

"What?"

"You asked nicely. I'll reward you with my presence."

"I changed my mind. Fuck off," she huffed, turning her back to him. Her other side felt worse, as if she were resting directly on her right lung, but she refused to look at him, even if she was amused. The bed dipped behind her and he curled an arm around her waist. "My doctor will call the cops again," Kana teased him, earning a small groan from him. He moved his mask enough to kiss her shoulder and she tried to imagine how good it would feel to sleep with Obito and Kakashi again. Kimimaro’s presence made that impossible. She had to lose the kid. Akatsuki would protect him. "I'm glad you aren't dead."

"Tell me you love me without telling me you love me," he said, lightly squeezing her hip. She really did want to say that she loved him, but she didn't feel like choking out the words. He knew. She didn't need to clarify. "Get some rest."

Chapter Text

"He's a genin now."

"He is. His parents would be proud of him."

"You're proud of him, Kakashi."

"And I have no right to be."

Kana handed him the team photo she'd lifted from the boy's room and he looked down at the children and their weary sensei. While Naruto and Sasuke looked grouchy, clearly wanting no part in the team, while a civilian girl smiled and gave two peace signs. Tenzo would make a fine teacher, but he wasn't Kakashi. Kakashi belonged with the children, hands pressed into the boy's hair to force them toward the camera. He would have smiled, even if he had no idea what to do with three rowdy children, even if he lacked experience with what it meant to be a sensei. Kana had led him astray. No amount of guilt or regret would ever change the course of his life. Though he could have crumpled the photo, though he could have burnt it until the wind carried the ashes away, Kakashi chose to neatly fold it and store it in his kunai pouch, where he would never forget it. The photo was all Kana could give him, and it was all he allowed himself.

She wrapped her arms around him and held him tightly to herself, and he kissed the outer shell of her ear. That night made them feel as if they were leaving Konoha for the first time. It was difficult, and differing emotions left them raw. Kana wanted to forget ever seeing the village, like every other visit. Her clan grounds hosted ghosts and her memories of the worst times transformed and bettered with age. And Kakashi thought of his youth. He thought of wasted time. He thought of the toughest years of his life thus far. Konoha was a poison, and despite their years spent away from the village, they were still susceptible. As soon as they passed the village limits, they were free of its effects, but the weight of the picture remained.

Their hunt for Han took them as far as the border of the Land of Grass, then they stopped for the night, making camp well outside of the nearest village. The border station was several hours north, but they still put up traps with ninja wire and bells to alert them of travelers stupid enough to brush the edge of their camp. They sat beside the small fire and roasted bananas together, both of them focused on cooking rather than talking. The mission to collect the five-tailed beast came directly from Obito, a sign that he fully believed they were ready and capable of fighting and capturing a jinchuriki. Kana recalled her past mission to collect Kokuo, and it colored her opinion of the mission. She and Kakashi worked well together, which made a difference, but Han’s steam-enhanced taijutsu meant they were better off with long-range fighting. The problem was that she and Kakashi preferred mid-range to close-range fighting.

“You’re overthinking this,” Kakashi said, interrupting her focus on strategies and multiple scenarios. Her banana had begun to turn black on one side, so she turned it over, rotating the stick so the other side could turn the same shade. “Obito is sure that the time is right,” Kakashi added, an afterthought to his previous statement. She wrinkled her nose at the words, because Obito hadn’t fought Han. She and Kakashi were tasked with capturing the first tailed beast, and their success or failure would alter Obito’s timeline. Kakashi offered her a bag of almonds and she dug a few of them from the bag and popped them into her mouth. “If we fail, we’ll only die.”

“Thank you. That’s exactly what I needed to hear,” Kana replied, rolling her eyes. He chuckled at her dry response and removed his banana from over the flames. “I’m strategizing, for a change. We can’t kill him, or I’d let you use your lightning cutter. It’s a major inconvenience,” she complained, pulling her own banana from the fire. Kakashi hummed in response, so she nudged his side with her elbow. He’d likely spent time strategizing too. Between them, he was better prepared, even though he hadn’t fought Han. She split the banana down the center and took a bite of the sweet insides. “And if you even suggest sending him to kamui, I’m going to shove this banana into your face.”

“You have to admit it’s a good way to transport him. We wouldn’t even tell Obito. He would enter into kamui and end up fighting the jinchuriki himself. We’re strategizing. I’m being helpful,” Kakashi shrugged. She slapped the hand holding his roasted almonds and they fell into his lap. Sighing, he brushed the food from his legs and resumed eating. “We’ve done crazier things,” he said, offering her a small smile. She opened her mouth to argue with him, but she recalled the worst missions they’d been through together. They’d had a mission where she’d impersonated a young lord’s daughter and choked a man out with her thighs. That was fun. “Do we know who’s assigned to Naruto?”

“Itachi and Kisame,” she frowned, peeking at him to see his reaction. He made a small noise and finished off the last of his banana, then he disposed of the remains by tossing it into the fire. The whole campsite smelled of bananas. “Obito wouldn’t put you through that,” she explained. For a moment, she thought he would argue with her and explain that the assignment would be cathartic for him. Naruto was a cute kid, and he didn’t deserve to die. “I think you should meet him before,” she trailed off and made a vague hand motion. They both knew what she meant with the movement. She wanted him to meet Naruto before the boy died. “You can tell him about his parents, since we aren’t forbidden from mentioning it now. You can tell him who you are and why it matters. He deserves to know, and Hiruzen and the remaining council members are wrong for denying him. We could always kill them all,” she suggested, humming at the end as she considered the possibility.

“Maybe another time,” Kakashi replied, his eyes focused on the flickering flames of their campfire. She would kill them all, if it would please him. And it was crazy to fight a kage, but they’d already established that they’d done some crazy things together. “Jiraiya is supposed to tell him about his family. I was denied when I requested the job.”

“That lecher hasn’t even met Naruto. He’s a piss-poor godfather.”

“I’m not going to defend him. We never really cared for one another. We’ve exchanged harsh words more than once. He projects a false image of himself.”

“But you still read his novels?”

“They took me through some dark times. They allowed me to feel, when I thought I’d never feel anything again.” He didn’t look at her when he spoke, so she studied his profile. He jabbed a stick at the base of the fire and the flames danced for him. She’d never cared enough to broach the subject of his past, and then it became too awkward to mention. “As a teenager, I thought about taking my own life quite often. I prioritized the life of my comrades because I felt my own life was worthless. I was hurting, and no one seemed to care, so I locked my feelings away. And then I discovered the series, and you were assigned to my team,” he said, finally turning his head so she could see his smile. She didn’t think her reassignment had been a positive thing, so she stared at him in silence. “So yes, I read his novels and believe he’s trash.”

“I’m glad you’re still here,” she replied, feeling awkward at being put on the spot. She didn’t know what to say in response to his morbid admission, or the fact that she’d mattered so much, even before they began their friends-with-benefits relationship. “Well now I want to kill him too,” she sighed, leaning back on her hands. He chuckled at her admission, but they both knew she was serious. “Are you,” she trailed off and tried another vague hand motion that he didn’t fully understand. She sat up straight again and chewed on her bottom lip as she tried to think of a more delicate way to phrase the question. In the end, she gave up. “Are you still suicidal?”

“No, I’m not.”

“You’d tell me if you were, wouldn’t you?”

“Mm. No. I wouldn’t.”

She frowned and grabbed the bag of roasted almonds from him so she could stuff a handful into her mouth. She couldn’t tell if he meant the words or not, and she had a feeling that prying would get her nowhere. He’d confessed all he was willing to confess. When she’d had enough of the almonds, she resealed the bag, then she retreated to her sleeping bag, while he took the first watch. The light and shadows played on his features. She didn’t know she was staring until he gave her a questioning look. They should have discussed their mission more, put serious thought in their strategies, but she couldn’t take anymore thoughts of Han or Kokuo or Akatsuki. She slipped out of her sleeping bag, took a seat next to Kakashi, and leaned into his side. It was a silent agreement that she would sleep when he slept. Until then, they sat together.

Chapter Text

At over seven feet tall, Han towered over them. His right hand remained tucked into his kimono-style top, showing that he didn't fully register the threat Kana and Kakashi presented. He was more reserved than Kana remembered, but she felt the stirring of his boil release, a sign that proved his calm exterior differed from his inner intentions. Kakashi drew his tanto, while Kana flexed her fingers in preparation for ninjutsu. Kakashi insisted he could handle Han's taijutsu, even though she called him a fool. She had a feeling he wanted to use the lightning cutter to destroy Han’s thick armor, but it was risky. His precision with the attack had improved over time, where his control could allow him a split-second maneuver to control the attack, something he’d needed as a child, something that would have saved Rin. But that was the past, and nothing mattered more than their current battle. Failure wasn’t an option.

Han allowed Kakashi to make the first strike, and the blade of Kakashi’s tanto left a jagged scratch along the arm of Han’s armor. The fist that launched toward Kakashi’s face caught him off guard, but Kana threw three shuriken that drew Han’s attention away from him. Han was fast for his size, once considered the fastest man in the world, but that title was thrown around too freely, in Kana’s opinion. Still, he wasn’t one to underestimate. Kakashi struck the same spot over and over, and the scratch grew with every hit, while Kana used earth release to try and trap the man, to prevent Han from moving his lower body. When Kakashi took his first hit, he flew across the field, where he rolled to a stop at the edge of a neglected pond. It reminded Kana too much of Yumegakure. Kakashi was slow to rise, but when he did, lightning crackled around him. Kana sent a fireball at close range to force Han back, and she followed quickly with an earth wave that was met with a steam-enhanced punch that shattered the ground and stopped her attack. Kakashi sent a wolf of lightning at Han, knowing the water portion of the man’s steam release was susceptible to it. The battle dragged on, until Kakashi finally lifted his scratched hitai-ate to reveal his sharingan. Kana stepped in to corner Han, and they both used taijutsu, hoping that their combined abilities would allow them openings for attacks.

Han took a raikiri to the chest that broke through his armor, and Kana punched him in the right eye, sending him stumbling backwards. The steam that Kakashi met burnt his hand, turning his fingers red. He shook off the injury and Han felt for the injury on his chest, clearly wondering how he was still alive. The assassination technique should have killed him, but he was left with a burnt indentation of Kakashi’s fist. Kana used the distraction to use wind release, but he planted his feet and countered with steam that forced Kakashi and Kana to retreat. When they finally thought they had him, he transformed into the second version of his tailed beast form, where his speed and chakra arms threatened to burn them at every encounter. Close combat was impossible, so Kana worked with Kakashi to combine fire and lightning, along with fire and wind. The flames grew in intensity, magnified by the added power of the second element. When the fire tornado collided with Han, he was knocked into a tree that broke under the force and he tumbled along the ground. Kana thought they’d won, but the man rose again.

Kana used her mangekyou, but Han shook off the effects. When she tried her eternal mangekyou, his enhanced form healed her damage. Kakashi took the opening to slap a seal to Han’s forehead that affected the seal containing the tailed beast. Han reverted to normal, then he collapsed, all of his energy gone. The rapid movement of his chest indicated he was breathing, but his eyes were closed, as if they’d killed him. Kana nudged the man’s body with her foot, but he didn’t lash out at her. One of his eyes opened and they locked gazes, but it was all he could manage. They’d immobilized the jinchuriki, marking the true beginning of Obito’s plans. Kana removed the broken hat from Han’s head, along with the cloth covering. Together, she and Kakashi wrapped chains around the man, binding his arms and legs tightly to his body. The last thing she did was remove his hitai-ate and toss it into the pond. His loyalty to Iwagakure, which had waned over time, no longer mattered. His mistreatment no longer mattered. In time, he would be dead. Nothing truly mattered to a dead man.

“How are we supposed to transport this giant fuck?” Kana nudged Han’s side with the toe of her sandal, but his body didn’t budge. She wasn’t going to carry the heavy man, and she didn’t think a few shadow clones would be able to handle the weight. Han was a large man in height and weight. “Let’s remove his armor,” she suggested, looking up to meet Kakashi’s eyes. After a moment, Kakashi nodded, then closed his sharingan eye and recovered it with his hitai-ate. Together, they removed the chains, stripped the man, and bound him again. To solve their problem, Kakashi sent the man into kamui, against Kana’s wishes. That left them to acknowledge their own exhaustion. Kana sat down in the ruined field, so Kakashi sank onto the grass across from her. “Does it bother you that he’s going to suffer during the extraction until he’s finally dead?”

“Thank you for reminding me,” Kakashi sighed, tilting his head back so he could see the red sky overhead. Kana didn’t care what happened to Han, but she wondered about Kakashi. She wondered if the man had a heart cold enough to dismiss Han’s grim future. “This was another mission. I’ve killed better people. I’ve been called cold-blooded Kakashi before. I lost years of my life in that mind frame. But I don’t think it’s ever left. In this sense, Akatsuki is no different than ANBU. I can accept that.” His response worried her. The time between Yumegakure and then had changed him, but maybe it was better for him to harden his heart than to struggle with the morality behind their actions.

“Reiketsu Kakashi isn’t who you are.”

“Then you don’t know who I am.”

“Don’t insult me.” Kana frowned at him, then threw a handful of crushed wildflowers and grass at his chest. He let the ruined mess hit him, then he shrugged his shoulders, as if her words didn’t bother him. She saw beyond cold-blooded Kakashi. She thought he was hurting. But he would deny it, like he denied her question about his suicidal thoughts and behavior. “If this is too much, I can make Obito get off his ass and help me with Utakata.” Kakashi frowned at her, but she didn’t back down. She didn’t like his attitude; she didn’t like his thought process. He wasn’t allowed to act with indifference. He wasn’t allowed to act more like Obito and herself. “Your attitude is shit. I hate it. Come up with better coping skills.”

“It doesn’t bother you that we’re killing innocent people,” he reminded her, trying to turn the conversation away from himself. She didn’t care. She only cared about the people she liked and loved. Her lack of attachment to most people made her life easier. Kakashi wasn’t her. She recalled the man willing to invite a prostitute into their group; she recalled a man burying and mourning over that same man. As their missions grew darker, Kakashi grew darker. “Saving the world requires sacrifices.”

“You’ve been listening to Obito’s shit too much.”

“Maybe.”

“Let’s get out of here.”

“Now you’re angry,” Kakashi informed her, as if she didn’t know exactly how she felt. She didn’t want to hear Obito’s words coming out of Kakashi’s mouth. She didn’t need two of the man around; she didn’t think the world could handle two of him. Instead of replying, she got to her feet and wiped the stray blades of grass from herself. Kakashi followed her lead, but his words hung in the air. She couldn’t remember the last time they’d been intimate. Maybe that was the problem. “You aren’t going to speak to me now.” It was a statement.

“I don’t like this version of you. I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but you better get your act together. You aren’t coming with me to capture Utakata. I’ll fucking do it myself,” she said, slapping his hand away when he tried to touch her shoulder. He put some space between them, then he lagged behind, letting her lead on her own. She assumed he was lost in thought. She hoped he was lost in thought. She didn’t want him hurting, but Kakashi was the one with the heart. Kakashi held their relationship together. He broke up fights. He fixed things. She didn’t want to lose that. She didn’t want to lose him.

They didn’t speak to one another for the rest of their journey to Amegakure.

Chapter Text

The extraction went smoothly. Kana watched the light indicating the expulsion of the tailed beast, then she admired Han’s still form. They had no need for the man’s body, and she and Kakashi were left with deciding what to do with the corpse. In the end, Obito arrived with Zetsu, and they watched the disgusting plan man devour the corpse. It was a simple way of disposing of the body, but the image would haunt her for the rest of her life. While Naruto painted fences and weeded gardens, she and Kakashi murdered people. There was an obvious disconnect, one that made no difference to her, one that should have affected Kakashi. He still insisted on acting like he’d reverted to a darker version of himself. She wanted to cut him open and see if she could rid him of that portion of himself. In the silence, she considered using her mangekyou on him, but he would never forgive her. It was something he never wanted her to do; it was something she promised she’d never do. In the hideout in the Land of Rivers, Kana tried to think of the best way to approach Obito, but Zetsu refused to leave the man’s side. They couldn’t have a decent conversation until Zetsu finally left. It took too long to rid them of Zetsu. Without him, Kana still couldn’t think of a delicate way to broach the subject of Kakashi’s mental decline.

“I think we need a break from missions for a few days,” Kana admitted, drawing attention to herself. Back-to-back missions had been weighing on them all, and she thought that a break would allow them some time to gather themselves. She wanted to see if a small break would convince Kakashi that there was more to life than his role of cold-blooded Kakashi. She wondered if visiting Naruto had tipped the scale; she wondered if getting his mind off of the future would allow him to move on. Obito looked between them both, very aware of the obvious distance between them. “Kakashi has lost his fucking mind.” Kakashi looked over at her with a frown hidden beneath his mask. She didn’t know a better way to explain Kakashi’s changing personality. “He’s getting worse. I don’t know what to do, but I’m tired of it. He thinks he’s some cold-blooded killer again, and seeing Naruto really cemented the idea. I regret accompanying him on that trip. He’s just, he’s just sounding too much like you and it’s sickening.”

“That’s a little rude,” Obito replied, though there was some amusement in his tone. She pointed at Kakashi, trying to get Obito to address the man. Obito cleared his throat and glanced in the direction of where Han’s body had lain. “Aren’t you some bleeding heart? You’re the rational one in this group. What are we supposed to do with you if you decide to sink to Kana’s level?” She growled at the insult and he waved her off, dismissing her rising temper in favor of focusing on Kakashi. Obito shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe her accusations. “I can reassign the mission for Utakata, if this is too much. You already captured one jinchuriki,” Obito offered, trying to be helpful, for once. Kana turned to face Kakashi, but she only caught him shrugging his shoulders. He made her want to shake him. “You’re hurting and you’re pretending you’re not. This really seems more like a Kana thing.”

“Fuck you,” Kana huffed.

“Not right now.” Obito pretended to tap his chin, clearly contemplating Kana’s request for a brief break. After a moment, he looked between the two. “Fine. In three days, we’ll discuss what I learned from Zetsu, and you’re right back on the road. If that doesn’t help, that’s too bad. Work it out. I’m not Kakashi, so I’m not going to mediate. If he wants to play pretend, that’s up to him,” Obito decided, ignoring Kana’s obvious distaste for the words. Kakashi was unusually quiet, as if he didn’t seem to care that the whole conversation revolved around him.

“You aren’t dumping this all on me. You’re a part of this, so act like it. For fuck’s sake, show that you give a damn,” Kana insisted, stomping her right foot. The earth under her foot gave way, so she had to yank her foot free of the hole. Obito turned his attention to Kakashi and silently studied the man, looking him over from head to toe, as if he would show some kind of inconsistency. “Kakashi, it’s fine to be upset. It’s not fine to stuff all of your feelings down and pretend to be exactly like us!” Realizing her words, her mouth snapped shut and she pointed to Obito, signaling for him to say something else. Obito rubbed the back of his head.

“I really don’t have time for this,” Obito complained, earning a withering glare from Kana. “We can take a journey to the Land of Rice Fields. It’s quiet, and it would get you away from large villages. It’s neutral territory, and it’s less crowded than the tourist traps of the Land of Hot Water. It can be a vacation.” Kana didn’t trust him at all, but she bit her tongue and waited for Kakashi’s response. Kakashi looked at the spot where Han’s body had lain, then he nodded, silently accepting the offer. Kana knew he didn’t trust Obito either, but they were both in agreement to give the place a shot. It was a place that was a reminder of early days, with older style homes and an abundance of rice fields. “There. Problem solved.” She’d focused on the way he’d included himself in the equation, so she was slightly pleased with the suggestion. Kakashi was willing to give it a shot, which was what mattered. Kakashi left first, using kamui to escape the cave, which left Kana and Obito alone.

“If this is some trick, I’m going to be furious.”

“Now why would I do that to you?”

“That question isn’t helping your case.”

"Just be quiet and enjoy my generosity."

He lightly flicked her nose, then they disappeared into kamui, where they found Kakashi waiting on them. He arched his brow at them, clearly wondering what had taken them so long to follow him. Instead of responding, Kana went with Kakashi, leaving Obito to sense for them and follow. As soon as they arrived in the old nation, Kana admired the rolling hills and endless greenery. She remembered the last time she'd visited the place, back when she'd worked to negotiate between the Kazekage and the daimyo of the nation. Nothing had changed. She took a deep breath and savored the fresh air, then she turned to smile at Obito. Her expression quickly soured when she recognized the faint chakra signature of Orochimaru. Obito moved out of her reach to avoid her incoming slap, but Kakashi saw the moment play out. He knew that Obito had tricked them.

"Orochimaru built a hidden village here and he's planning an attack on the next chunin exams. We need to make sure he doesn't make a move on Naruto," Obito explained to them, the words greeted with Kakashi's grim expression. Kana took Obito’s temporary distraction and kicked his right shin, but he countered by yanking on her hair. "We can still enjoy ourselves. He doesn't know we're here. We can find a bed and breakfast while we're tracking him," Obito continued.

"We're not tracking him right now. You gave us three days off, and we're taking three days off," Kana interrupted him, crossing her arms over her chest. She saw Kakashi’s shoulders slump and it only made her angrier. Obito put a hand over his mask to show that he was utterly done with her, but she didn't care. "The chunin exams are six months away. We have plenty of time to go over whatever ridiculous plan you have in mind." She knew he wanted to argue with her, but he moved his hand and took in Kakashi's blank expression. He'd missed the way the man's shoulders fell. "Obito," Kana said, emphasizing his name. She could imagine the grouchy expression on his face and how he wanted to shake her. Instead, he gave up.

"Fine. Do whatever you want."

"You're staying."

"I plan on confronting Orochimaru."

"You're fucking staying."

"It would be nice," Kakashi spoke up, interrupting them before they could dissolve into a heated argument. Kana motioned to Kakashi, and Obito sighed, finally giving in. "Life is short, Obito." Kana wrinkled her nose at the words, because they sounded wrong. The tone was off and the topic was depressing. They all knew their lives were short. They'd known before they'd graduated the academy. "You said this place has a hidden village?"

"We're going to find a bed and breakfast. Forget about the hidden village and Orochimaru. That's for future Kakashi to worry about," Kana interrupted, cutting Obito off before he began. Both men seemed disappointed, which made her want to slap them both. Getting them to stop thinking about the future was almost impossible. She didn't know what to do with Kakashi, and she never knew what to do with Obito. Men were complete idiots. "Let's just fucking go. It looks like it's going to rain." She purposely took one of Kakashi’s hands in her own, as if she were coaxing him back to his former self. "It's a vacation, so you both better act like it."

She thought she heard Obito mutter something under his breath, but when she looked over at him, he turned his head away from her. She recalled the image of Kakashi’s shoulders falling, and that drove her to push them along. They would likely argue the entire time, but it was worth the effort. Kakashi needed reminding that life was short, which meant that he needed to enjoy every moment he could. There was darkness in their future, but the entire way didn’t need to be the same. As expected, Obito was absolutely no help when it came to finding a decent place to stay, and Kakashi kept insisting he didn’t care. Both of them had her wanting to just abandon them and go off to deal with Orochimaru on her own. Instead of feeding into the negative energy settling between them, she found a decent bed and breakfast near the most beautifully designed rice paddies she’d ever seen. They were perfectly placed on the hillside, almost cascading down it, and the view of the cloudy sky reflecting off of the flooded fields was breathtaking. Neither man appreciated the scenery. Obito wanted to get out of the rain, and Kakashi commented that the inhabitants of the little village were likely poor farmers. She couldn’t win with them.

The interior of the building displayed too much cross stitching and the tatami was worn, telling her that the owners were older, and that the home had seen better times. She didn’t expect a young woman to welcome them into the home, but she decided she would bite her tongue and maintain nothing but pleasantries between them, until the woman kept looking at Kakashi. Kana squeezed Kakashi’s hand and he squeezed hers back, then she plastered on her best fake smile.

“You’re all wet. Let me get you some towels.” The woman disappeared before they could say anything, and Kana made sure neither man looked at the woman as she walked away. Obito feigned a small cough and she elbowed him in the side, making him grunt at the sharp hit from her bony elbow. “Here we go!” The woman handed each one of them a towel, and Kakashi closed his eyes for a small smile that she knew he was faking. Still, the woman kept sneaking glances at him. She didn’t look at Obito at all, which was reassuring.

“You must not get many visitors,” Kana said, forcing the woman to acknowledge her presence. The woman was kind, as evidenced by the smile lines on her young face. Kana guessed that she was just beginning adulthood. Maybe she was responsible for running everything. Maybe her parents had died. Nothing served as an excuse for the light blush on her cheeks. “I said you must not get many visitors.”

“Oh! I’m so sorry. No, I don’t. My parents started this bed and breakfast, but my father recently passed and my mother is bed bound. This village was meant to be the capital, when the nation advanced, but nothing changed here. Now we get travelers on the road to somewhere better,” the woman finished, a small frown forming. “I didn’t even introduce myself! I’m Chinatsu. Welcome to Kotohima.” Her mood was brighter as she officially welcomed them to the village and her home. Kana didn’t care about the village name, and she honestly didn’t care to know the woman’s name. Chinatsu was old enough, but not wise enough to take a hint. “We don’t get many shinobi here.”

“We aren’t shinobi,” Kana lied, knowing Chinatsu could see the tanto on Kakashi’s back and the wakizashi on her own. Chinatsu opened her mouth to disagree, but Kana held out a small pouch of money and gave it a little shake. The woman accepted the money, clearly surprised by Kana’s blunt way of handling the exchange. She saw Chinatsu look over their faces again, as if she would uncover some great mystery.

“Surely you must be. You have swords,” Chinatsu continued, missing the hint to let it go. Kana hummed in response, trying to decide if she wanted to risk being tossed out the front door. It was more likely that she’d kill the woman, bury her body beneath the floorboards, and enjoy the three-day vacation in peace. “Forgive me. It’s none of my business. But this is too much money. I will say that,” Chinatsu insisted.

“It’s for three days, and I expect you to leave my companions alone. When you need to address us, you will address me. If you can’t accept these terms, I’ll take my money and go somewhere else.”

“That seems rather rude. What if they want to talk to me?”

“They won’t want to.”

“How do you know?”

“Do you aggravate every guest who arrives on your doorstep, or are we special?” Chinatsu closed her mouth and stopped trying to offer the pouch to Kana. Kana knew exactly how much was within the pouch, and she knew it would cover three days and her strange request. She didn’t want the woman to bother Kakashi or Obito. Obito didn’t handle people very well when he wanted nothing to do with them, and Kakashi needed a break from his public persona. “Will you please show us to our room, Chinatsu-san?” The honorific was used in a sharp manner, lacking the respect and properness brought on by using one. Chinatsu started to walk away, but she paused and glanced back at them. She’d just noticed Kana’s request for one room. “We like to cuddle,” Kana smiled, though there was wickedness in her eyes.

The room had a futon neatly stored against the far wall, and there was an open closet with hangers and storage space. The futon looked large enough for two of them to fit, if they didn’t want any personal space. Chinatsu caught Kana looking at the futon and quickly told her that two additional futons would be provided at no extra cost. When Chinatsu went to retrieve the futons, Obito chuckled. Chinatsu had gone from being chipper and welcoming to being nervous and uncomfortable, all thanks to Kana’s attitude. They left their sandals by the door and Kakashi went to the window to look at the rain hitting the rice paddies. He didn’t comment on her behavior, so she had to assume he disapproved of it. Chinatsu returned and offered to help prepare the futons, but Kana politely requested privacy. Chinatsu almost addressed Obito, but her mouth snapped shut and she quickly closed the door, giving them the privacy Kana craved.

“So she can’t address us? What if I had something I needed to tell her?”

“Obito, if you feel like talking to her, then talk to her. Just don’t complain to me when I have to kill her for making a pass at you. She already tried some weird heart-eyes exchange with Kakashi.” She dropped her damp towel on the floor and kicked it across the room, where it connected with the wall. There was something so infuriating at the way women looked at Kakashi, like they wanted to own him, like they thought they really had a chance with him. Obito moved behind her and looped his arms around her. “Kakashi?” Kakashi turned away from the window and forced a smile for her that didn’t reach his eye. “You can take the first bath.”

“It’s alright. You take it,” he said, unconcerned with the order they used. For the first time, Obito noticed the same oddities. Kakashi had a particular tone that hinted at his mental state. He seemed indifferent to many things, over the course of the months. Kakashi removed his cloak and neatly folded it, then he placed it out of the way. He was more aware of tidiness, of the order surrounding him and the order he desired. Kana motioned with her hand, a sign that she wanted Obito to say something.

“Why don’t you join me?” Kakashi’s head whipped in Obito’s direction, as if he’d never thought Obito would say the words. Kana was so desperate to unravel the issues slowly choking Kakashi’s spirit that she didn’t protest. “It’s just a bath. I’m not asking you to have sex with me. Do you want to join me or not?” Obito let his arms fall from around Kana and they both waited for Kakashi to politely decline and pretend that it didn’t bother him. Instead, Kakashi nodded. “I’ll go start it.” Obito lightly patted Kana’s ass, then he left the room to venture to the bathroom down the hall. The lack of privacy meant that the man would wear his mask more often. Kana really didn’t like that.

“It’s just a bath,” Kana echoed, reminding Kakashi to lighten up. Kakashi dropped his gloves onto his folded cloak, his focus on her. “We’re concerned. You’re keeping things from us. I put up with it for this long, and now I’m tired of it. Can you just relax and try to enjoy this little vacation? It’s not ANBU, Kakashi. You don’t need to compartmentalize. Just talk, you stupid fuck.” He smiled at her words, the most genuine she’d seen. He walked over to her and placed a kiss on her forehead. She hugged him and he rubbed her back.

“Is it wrong that I’m doubting my place here? After everything we’ve been through,” he frowned, holding her so that she couldn’t see his face. She sighed against his neck and gave him another squeeze. “I hope the hunt fails. I hope Itachi and Kisame fail. I hope he doesn’t die young. I hope I don’t have to see the light leave his eyes.” So it was Naruto after all. How long had he thought about Naruto’s death? He’d accepted it, but maybe he’d never really accepted it. And he would be forced to see Naruto go through the extraction process and know that he had some hand in Naruto’s death, even if he wasn’t the one to capture the boy. “Do you understand?”

“I thought you knew what you were getting into here. This is what it takes to be with Obito, to be with us. Kakashi, he has to die.”

“I’ve already failed his parents. I’m really going to fail him too?”

“It’s not your responsibility. He is not your responsibility. You don’t owe him anything just because his father was your sensei, Kakashi. Naruto isn’t Minato or Kushina. Saving him won’t undo what happened to his parents. You can't right wrongs that are long gone. Is this you telling me you can’t do this anymore? Is this why you’re trying to hide everything from us?”

“I can never save the people I want to save.” He patted her back once more, then he pulled away from her. She opened her mouth to continue speaking to him, but Obito lightly knocked on the door frame. Kakashi forced another smile as he went to the bathroom, and Obito lingered in the doorway. She shook her head at him, a signal that she hadn’t gotten through to Kakashi, a signal that it was Obito’s turn to try and fix things. She didn’t think he stood a chance.

Chapter Text

Kana leaned back against the tub and closed her eyes, her senses focused on the citrus smell from the bubble bath and the sounds of low talking bleeding through the wall. The hot water felt nice on her skin, but she couldn't lose herself in the moment when her thoughts constantly circled back to Kakashi. He hadn't wanted Obito to touch him, which irritated Obito, which meant she had two problems to deal with. As the voices rose, she clenched her eyes shut and sunk lower into the tub. With her hair pulled up and held back, she considered just sinking completely into the bath. She heard a door slam and she finally decided that her plans for a long soak had been ruined. With the force of the door slamming shut, she could only imagine Obito tearing through the night, determined to release his pent-up anger, so she was surprised to find the man sitting atop the middle futon with his hands over his face. She knew he wasn't crying, so she tiptoed into the room and changed for bed. She thought he would talk to her, but he didn't.

"He wants to leave." Obito finally lowered his hands and she was surprised by the lost expression on his face. She didn't know what to say to him; part of her wanted to ask him to repeat himself. She was the one to leave. She was the one to argue and fight. "I played a part in the death of our sensei and Kushina. I fought our sensei that day. I found out about her pregnancy and knew it was a perfect time to strike. Kakashi blames himself, when he should be blaming me. What am I supposed to say?"

"Don't you even think about telling him that, Obito." She didn't hesitate to say the words because her thoughts immediately went to Kakashi's well-being. Telling Kakashi the truth would drive the man further away. In a second, she'd accepted the truth and moved on, but Minato and Kushina still mattered to Kakashi. "I don't know what to say to him when nothing reaches him. I was wrong to give him moments with Naruto. It's my fault. I thought he could maintain the distance and gain acceptance and I was wrong."

"We're not ready to take the nine tails yet."

"Do you think he'd defend Naruto?"

"If I fight him over this, one of us isn't walking away."

"You'd fucking kill him now, after everything we've been through?" It was her turn to shout at him and rage against the words. He frowned at the volume of her voice, but he didn't try to silence her. She always found ways to make herself heard. "You aren't killing him. If you try to hurt him, I won't hold back. He's just being an idiot about this. He's trying to protect Naruto in the way that he couldn't protect Minato or Kushina. What did you even say to him that made him storm off?" Obito rubbed the back of his head, and she was thankful to see the expression on his face, because it screamed of his guilt. She rested her hands on her hips and gave him a disapproving look. "What did you say, you stupid man?"

"I told him he needs to listen to me and take the missions he's given, and I told him that he would stand down when we retrieved Naruto. He told me not to say Naruto's name, then he told me we had differing opinions on our future. I don't understand. He seemed fine. I really don't understand."

"He knew the day was coming and he was faced with the reality when you assigned us the mission to retrieve Han. He shouldn't have been there for the extraction. That was too much. And seeing Zetsu eat a man wasn't easy either."

"He's abandoning us in some ridiculous attempt to make up for perceived failures? They're both dead! They don't care what happens to Naruto. They're nothing but ashes!"

"Don't fucking yell at me! Go get him and bring him back!"

"No." Obito frowned at her and she blinked at him a few times, caught off guard with his quick refusal. She tried letting the silence wear on him, but he didn't budge. She tried glaring, but he met her eyes, refusing her once more. "If he wants to march off into the rain and catch pneumonia, that's his prerogative, isn't it?" Kana shoved his shoulder, then she went to relieve her cloak and grabbed her sandals. "If he thinks he's going to be Naruto's savior, he's mistaken. He isn't going to stand in my way."

"That reaction? That's why Kakashi stormed off. You're being an insensitive prick, Obito. We all know Naruto needs to die for the plan to come to fruition. He just hasn't accepted it. He's hurting," she insisted, throwing on her cloak.

When she was downstairs, she slipped on her sandals, bypassed a confused Chinatsu, and headed out into the rain. If Kakashi meant to vanish, he would have left using kamui. Instead, she found him standing underneath a tree, where the rain hadn't penetrated the leaves and branches. His hair was still wet, along with his cloak. Even though he saw her coming, he remained beneath the tree. It was odd playing the mediator in such a terrible situation. Maybe he saw something in their surroundings, where the rain soaked everything in sight. She didn't want him to leave, not after he'd told her that he would stay. She wanted to say she would go with him. She wanted to say she would go to the same lengths that he'd gone through for her. But Naruto meant nothing to her; Minato and Kushina meant nothing to her. Naruto was a loud, unruly child playing ninja with more experienced shinobi.

"You just had to run off into the rain, didn't you," Kana commented, sighing at the depressing scenery. He tucked his hands into his pockets, and she knew that he was angry enough to avoid touching her. Their vacation would end up tumultuous, at best. "Kakashi, he's not worth this. Obito and I have been with you for years. He's no one, in comparison. Would you please come back to the house?" Kakashi’s expression hardened and she couldn't resist pinching the bridge of her nose. "Minato and Kushina are dead. You don't need to repent. You owe them nothing. You were supposed to make peace with Naruto's death, not want to run off and play bodyguard."

"He's twelve."

"You can't use the age excuse when we were child soldiers."

"He reminds me of Obito."

"He's currently sitting on his ass, waiting for you to come to your senses." She was frustrated because she didn't understand, because she saw no one when she looked at Naruto. She took a deep breath, held it in her lungs, then slowly released it. She stepped in front of Kakashi, blocking his view of their surroundings, and placed her hands on his cheeks in an attempt to force him to look at her. "He's not Obito. Sasuke isn't you. That civilian girl isn't Rin. It's over, Kakashi. You constantly want to live in the past. You've mourned enough. You've done enough. You aren't that lost, angry little kid anymore. You aren't cold- blooded Kakashi. Come back with me." He sighed at her words, but he removed his hands from his pockets and took her hands in his. "We'll figure it out."

"I want to be there during the extraction."

"Then we'll be there for it. Promise me you won't leave us. Promise me you aren't going to make this more difficult by sabotaging this."

"I can't promise you that."

Kana recalled Obito's words. If Kakashi stood in the way, Obito would kill him. She found herself acknowledging that love from Obito came off as conditional, even though he truly cared for them. She told herself what she needed to hear to smile at Kakashi. He didn't return the smile, but she hadn't thought he would, considering his last words to her. More than likely, he would waste his breath trying to get Obito to forget Tsuki no Me. It was useless, but Kakashi was desperate. They stood there, under the cover of the large tree, and watched the rain until it eventually slowed enough for them to return to the house. He'd told her that he wasn't going anywhere, so she tasted bitterness when she recalled his words. She should have known the man would lie to her, as so many men had lied to her. And she couldn't blame any of them. She was a liar too.

"Have fun in the rain, Bakashi?"

"You weren't there, so yes. Do you want to continue our argument?"

"No, he fucking doesn't," Kana interrupted, blocking Kakashi’s view of Obito. She heard the man scoff, so she threw a dirty look over her shoulder. "This is a vacation. I'm not afraid to punch either of you." The men frowned at one another, their responses nothing but silence. Obito was still sitting on the middle futon, but he moved further away when Kakashi sat down. Kana really didn't know what to do with them. Making peace was Kakashi's thing. "Asking you both to apologize is off the table, I'm guessing?"

"His apologies are worthless," Kakashi shrugged, not even looking at Obito.

Kakashi had missed the man for years, and when faced with the changed man, he couldn't appreciate him. Kana would have preferred goofy Obito, who was obsessed with his rivalry with Kakashi. They both were disappointed. Annoyed, Obito moved his futon farther away, which had Kakashi moving his futon farther away. Kana stared at her futon, where it was isolated from both of them. Asking them to sleep together was also off the table. Obito rarely apologized, and when he did, he often repeated the same action that forced him to apologize in the first place, so Kakashi wasn't wrong.

"This is ridiculous and I'm not sleeping alone. Move your futons back before I throw them out the window." Neither man moved, so she grabbed the bottom of Kakashi's futon and dragged him and his futon toward her own. Obito thought he could fight her off, but she did the same thing to him. "Get over yourselves." She sat down on her own futon and crossed her arms over her chest. The silent treatment was overrated.

Chapter Text

She couldn't sleep. The first day of their vacation had been an utter nightmare, and they'd all gone to bed angry, something her father had told her never to do. She understood the man a little more, how he managed to stay married for so long, how he managed to wake up every day not resenting his wife. Though she wasn't married, the same rule applied. Things left unsaid weighed on her. She found herself imagining all of the ways Kakashi could leave them, and each one reminded her of what her life had been like before she'd met Kakashi and Obito. Her life had been rather depressing. She'd skipped from bed to bed in some attempt to feel alive. And then she'd fallen into bed with Kakashi, and he changed everything. The fact that he meant to oppose her, to oppose Obito, meant that he valued a twelve-year-old boy he'd never spoken two words to over them. She tried to rationalize that she'd been attached, that she'd risked her place in the organization, and then her life, for Kimimaro, that she'd stood up to Obito for a baby no one seemed to want. But it was different. Kakashi chased ghosts. He was wrong, and she was nothing but jealousy and endless bitterness.

"You can stop pretending to sleep. I'm awake too," Obito mumbled, reaching up to run a hand over his face. She waited for Kakashi to open his eyes, but he didn't, so she turned to face Obito. "He's pathetic. I'm not putting my plan on hold so he can run off with the kid. If we could handle capturing the nine tails right now, I would have already extracted the fox and let Zetsu eat the boy." He was angry, but the person he wanted to confront was asleep. He'd likely run through numerous responses, each one uglier than the last. She would have preferred the anger over how she felt, but it had fizzled out hours ago.

"I think he's going to turn on us the minute you assign that mission." She had a feeling, deep in her bones, that he would choose to abandon them. The idea to use her mangekyou on him resurfaced, and she rejected it all over again. "You call him pathetic, but we're the ones conspiring at two in the morning," she sighed and glanced over her shoulder at Kakashi. He looked peaceful. If she could keep him that way, she would. "Obito, maybe this is the end. Maybe this is the sign that our priorities are fucked. Why aren't we enough? Why isn't this enough? We make you happy." She tried reaching out to Obito in a way that she couldn't reach out to Kakashi. She wondered if he would rage against her and wake Kakashi, but he turned onto his side so they saw one another.

"I have to do this. I've spent half my life dedicated to this. We have the first tailed beast. What kind of life would we even have? This isn't peace. This is a pause before another war, and another war. This world needs change. I can change it." His conviction almost lured her into his fantasy, where he would free everyone of the horrors of war. "You'll both be there with me. You'll know true happiness. You'll have the perfect life. I can give you that."

"You're such a fucking idiot," she hissed, her voice low enough not to disturb Kakashi. Obito frowned at her insult, but she didn't care. "You're just as bad as he is. You both take what we have for granted. He's going to leave us! That's it. That's how this is going to end. And you'll be as miserable as you were when I first met you. How happy will you be when you're all that's left?" His frown faded until they were simply staring at one another. He needed to be more selfish. He needed to allow himself to live. "He's taken all he can take, Obito. Are you really going to let this fall apart again? Haven't you learned anything?"

"You'll follow him?"

"I don't know."

"You're lying."

"Go the fuck to sleep," she said, words spoken between gritted teeth. He wrapped his right arm around her and pulled her against his chest. He smelled like citrus, which reminded her of better days. "Kakashi, I know you woke up when I raised my voice. You aren't fooling anyone. Join the conversation. It's already a mess." Kakashi touched her back and she sighed against Obito's skin. The temporary cold war continued, but they found a weird moment when they could accept one another. "Say something," she frowned, poking Obito's stomach.

"It's alright," Kakashi lied, his tone changing with the simple response. Obito squeezed Kakashi’s hand, as if applying pressure would force the man to fold. Kakashi stared over Kana's shoulder, where his eye met Obito's. "I think we've made it clear where we stand." Kana missed the whole exchange. When she pulled back to see Obito's face, she saw his narrowed eyes. She'd likely missed more than the glare he'd shot Kakashi, and she knew it. "And yes, I've had enough of him."

"Did you think we would run off into the sunset together?"

"I wasted years of my life trying to be half as good as you were, and then I saw you again. You're just a terrible person. That's who you are now. There's nothing redeeming about you. You're deluded and miserable, and you're willing to take us down with you."

"And yet here you are, sleeping with me. What does that say about you?"

"Stop it. For fuck's sake, we're all disappointed and angry. Kakashi, you're upset, and Obito, you're being yourself. We aren't getting anywhere," she snapped, rolling onto her back so she could glare at the ceiling. "Are you really going to let him walk away, Obito? Talk to him. Tell him how you feel. Stop being stupid, useless pieces of garbage and reach common ground."

"If you love me, you'll stay," Obito said, sharing nothing of his own feelings. Kakashi didn't appreciate the words, as evidenced by the deep frown marring his features. Kana covered her face with her hands to hide her own reaction.

"I'm not going to fall for that," Kakashi replied, brushing him off. Obito looked at Kana, then he returned his gaze to Kakashi. "This is where I draw the line, and this is where you show me what kind of man you really are, and what kind of man you can become," Kakashi informed him.

"I should have killed him when I had the chance. He was so small and helpless. I was there. I saw it happen. And I did nothing to stop it." Obito had nothing but anger in his heart and he was merciless as he spoke to Kakashi. Kakashi grabbed Kana around the waist and dumped her over the side of the futon so he could punch Obito in the jaw. Obito licked the blood from his lip and laughed.

"That's enough!" Kana had to drag Kakashi off of Obito and she took an elbow to the eye that had her rolling onto the tatami. She covered her right eye with her hand and shoved Kakashi away from her when he tried to check on her. "You've done enough. You both are impossible. You're fucked up, and that says a lot because it's coming from me!" Obito had blood running from his lip and his nose, where he'd taken the hits and hadn't retaliated. "If you want to spar, go out into the rain and beat each other up. Get off my futons. Yes, futons. They're all mine now. You get to sleep on the fucking floor."

Instead of leaving, Kakashi climbed back under the covers and turned his back to Obito, who looked ready to resume the fight. Kana placed her hand over Obito's face and shoved him back so that she could lie down between them. Obito took one look at her angry expression and turned his back to her, leaving her to glare at the ceiling again. They had two days left, and she wondered if they would get through it without more bloodshed. She thought one of them would attempt to touch her, so when they didn't, she punched them both in the back. They had two days left, and she didn't think they could fix things.

Chapter Text

She sat across from Obito and recalled the way his blood had looked as it ran from his nose and split lip. There were no signs that an altercation had taken place. He looked fine, while she was nursing a bruised right eye that made her look like a victim of domestic violence. Chinatsu tried to make the breakfast table a little happier by talking to Kana, but Kana ignored the woman, letting words and questions hang in the air. Kakashi pretended to listen, but he did nothing to add to the conversation. He'd locked eyes with Obito and Kana felt the divide between their agitation, how their chakra surged, as if they meant to attack one another. In the background, Chinatsu talked about the harvest, as if they gave a damn. Kana pushed the remains of her breakfast away from her, wiped her mouth on her napkin, and left the table. The second day of their vacation was worse than the first day. They reminded her too much of the behavior of her mountain lions. Males fighting for dominance. When Kakashi left, there would be no need for the behavior. And Obito would insist that he didn't care, that Kakashi's absence didn't hurt him. Without Kakashi, she would go right back to loneliness. He'd been with her for too long; she couldn't stand the thought of not having him by her side.

She slipped outside and went to admire the rice paddies, because the birdsong and cool breeze were relaxing. She didn't know the first thing about growing rice, but she found the neat rows aesthetically pleasing. She thought that Kakashi would be brave enough to approach her, but she felt Obito's chakra instead. It was a bad sign. It was only a matter of time before Kakashi left. With every second, the distance between them grew. Sadly, Obito joined her with his mask on. She'd grown to hate masks. They hid too much of the people she loved.

"I'm surprised you aren't fighting each other."

"He went for a walk."

"Maybe it has something to do with the fact that you crushed his world and spat on the remains. That was low, even for you. Do you even love him?"

"That's irrelevant."

"It's a simple question. Do you love him? You don't treat him well. You act like he's disposable. He would die for you, you know that, don't you? He puts his life on the line every day for you. And you crush him like a bug," she frowned, turning her attention from the clear sky to his orange mask. He'd heard her, even though he didn't act like it. "Maybe he'd be better off leaving. You treat him like shit and I'm clearly not everything he desires, because he's still hung up on you," she continued, watching for some kind of hint in Obito's relaxed posture. Maybe the words meant nothing to him. Maybe they were irrelevant.

"I do care for him. It's a stupid question," Obito finally replied, waving a dismissive hand. He hadn't really answered the question. Caring for someone and loving someone were different. She loved them. "You don't believe me." He'd read the doubt on her face, but she hadn't tried to hide it. "I care for him," he stated again, emphasizing the words. She wasn't satisfied. She wanted him to shamelessly admit his feelings. Instead, he chose to be vague.

"Do you love him? There's a difference between caring for someone and loving someone. It's an important difference. Do you love him?" His visible eye narrowed and she shook her head at him. He wasn’t going to say the words. She recalled the way she’d gradually opened up to Kakashi, how it was to acknowledge her feelings. She didn’t treat him well. She didn’t appreciate him enough. Maybe she had no right to say that she loved him. Maybe he was better off without her. "He's unhappy, Obito." She didn’t ask Obito to give up on his plans. She didn’t ask him to spare Naruto. Sharing the truth, saying the words, didn’t get her the reaction she wanted. He turned his head in the direction of the bed and breakfast.

“He’s gone.”

Two words took her breath away. She turned on her heel and took off running, leaving Obito to trail after her. Chinatsu greeted her as she entered the home, but she waved the woman off and took the stairs two at a time to reach their second-floor room. She tore through the closet, looking for signs of his belongings, but his cloak and his tanto were gone. There was no note, no heartfelt message detailing his decision to leave. She had his scent on the sheets and the empty space where he should have been. After tearing the room apart, searching for any trace of the man, she sat in the middle of the open room and tried to make sense of his abandonment. He deserved better, and he'd finally realized it. Obito’s cruel words had tipped the scale. Whether he loved Kakashi or not didn't matter when Kakashi wasn't there.

She waited for the familiar touch of anger, where it would slowly rise until it overtook her, but she didn't feel the telltale signs of it. She was too busy trying to convince herself not to tear apart the room for a second time. Tracking his chakra signature captured her attention and ended her futile search before it began. He'd used kamui, and he'd gone as far as the Land of Iron, based on her quick calculation. When Obito found her, she was just zipping up her cloak. He took one look at her and wrapped his arms around her. She fought against the embrace, but he tightened his hold on her until she felt as if she were being smothered. He didn't offer to track Kakashi. He didn't waste words meant to console her. She kept feeling for lightning, until Kakashi concealed himself. Then she cursed him for cutting off the only connection she had left. As the minutes passed, she began to lose hope.

Day three of the vacation consisted of her refusing to speak to Obito. Neither of them could track Kakashi, and she couldn't convince Obito to blindly search an entire nation on the off chance that they would stumble across Kakashi. She didn't care about the future hunt for Orochimaru. Any words related to the mission were met with silence. She grew so tired of hearing about the future that she offered to help Chinatsu in the garden, which led to too many one-sided conversations broken up by muttered words about bugs.

"He's been watching us for about an hour now," Chinatsu said, not looking up from the potatoes she was pulling from the dirt. Kana glanced over her shoulder and saw Obito sitting on the engawa, clearly watching their every move. "Is he the one who hit you?" Kana dropped some carrots into the basket Chinatsu had brought, then she brushed her hands together to free them of dirt.

"It was an accident," Kana clarified, still feeling the dull ache from her right eye. She tipped her head back to look up at the afternoon sky, where the sun beat down on them. "He's watching me because he knows I'm upset with him, and he's trying to wait it out. It's smart. Or maybe he thinks I'll leave too, like I have somewhere to go." Kana didn't know why she chose to speak to Chinatsu, but she was glad to say something. Chinatsu was a chatterbox, but she proved she could listen too. "Do you want him?"

"No! Of course not. I would get tired of that mask. After a while, it becomes creepy."

"He's a creepy person, so it fits." Chinatsu giggled, while Kana found herself peeking over her shoulder again. Every time she searched for Kakashi's chakra signature, Obito felt her chakra expanding. He shared in her many failures. "I didn't really have a choice, and now I don't think I deserve any better," she admitted, feeling the weight of the empty space in her life. Again, she searched for a person who didn't want to be found. Chinatsu raised her eyes to meet Kana’s.

"That's silly. There are billions of people in this world and you've been with two?" Kana frowned at the question, trying to decide if she would explain that she'd been with other men. In the end, she nodded, just to keep the conversation going. "I think that you deserve better, but I'm also a romantic at heart. I think the mission to find the one is just as important as the one. Maybe he's just part of the mission. He doesn't have to be the end." Kana looked back at him another time and tried to imagine a life on her own. "Is he cute? He can't wear that mask all of the time."

"He takes it off when we're together, and yes, he's cute. He's good in bed too," Kana replied, voicing her thoughts. Chinatsu giggled again and she couldn't help her smile. Another failure had her smile fading. She couldn't spend every waking moment hoping Kakashi would slip up and reveal his whereabouts. "He's great, when he wants to be, but he can be a real bastard. I guess I've grown so used to having someone in my life that the idea of being alone bothers me. Maybe I'm finally over this lifestyle."

"You're welcome to stay. It's nice talking to someone other than my mother. You're a fine gardener too," Chinatsu smiled, motioning to the collection of potatoes and carrots. She couldn't imagine living in such a rural area, not after life in a hidden village. She took her lower lip between her teeth and observed the area, where she found beauty in the rice paddies. It wasn't home. She had no home.

"I'll keep that in mind," Kana lied. Another failure encouraged her to leave the garden. She wasn't surprised when Obito followed her. For once, he didn't know how to leave her alone. And all she knew was failure.

Chapter Text

The rest of day three was a one-sided game of hide-and-seek that she repeatedly lost. No matter where she went, Obito followed, as if his silent smothering somehow helped her accept Kakashi's abandonment. They were left with the aftermath, and they processed loss in different manners. She wanted solitude, until she had her emotions and thoughts under control, and he wanted to test her patience and rile her up. By nightfall, she'd had enough of Obito, and everything he had to offer, but he refused to leave her alone. As she laid out the futons, she purposely moved his futon away from hers, and he watched her in silence, as he had all day. His constant presence reminded her that he was all she had left, and that was one of the hardest things to accept. Until they could track Kakashi, she was basically on her own. Obito would eventually return to scheming. He'd made things incredibly difficult for her, whether he acknowledged it or not.

"Just spit it out. You've been up my ass all day."

"I didn't think he would run off."

"Well he did. Thanks."

"I'm sorry," he sighed, the words still so foreign on his tongue. Kana stopped arranging the blankets and let him see her pissed off expression. They both knew he should have apologized to Kakashi. Kana didn't know what to do with the apology, so she let it pass over her. Her expression said it all. "I lost my temper and said some things better left unsaid. You were right," he continued, sweet words soothing her proverbial burn. In response, she yanked his mask off and judged the sincerity in his eyes.

"You should have apologized to him. He wouldn't have run off if you'd expressed some level of regret. Now we both have to deal with the consequences, and that's hardly fair. I didn't tell him I basically murdered his makeshift family."

"It was a miscalculation I didn't care to correct. And to be fair, I failed to destroy the village. We both lost that day."

Kana took a calming breath, trying and failing to quiet her mixed emotions, then she slapped him. His head whipped to the side from the force she put behind the hit. She expected him to hit her back, because they always traded blows, but he seemed genuinely shocked that she'd hit him, as if his words weren't supposed to anger her. She shoved his mask into his chest, where he caught it before it fell to the floor, then she left the bedroom and shut herself in the bathroom. She leaned against the bathroom sink and pressed her forehead against the mirror. The moment she’d slapped him, she’d shown that she wasn’t any better. She lost her temper and acted out in ways that would be deemed inappropriate. She thought he would storm off, but he stayed in the bedroom for several long minutes. She’d locked herself in the bathroom with no clothing to change into, which meant she would have to settle for confronting him in a towel. As if on cue, he knocked on the bathroom door, then he tested his luck with opening the door. She’d forgotten to lock it, and seeing his face made her want to slam the door on him. He offered her a small pile of folded clothes and she looked from her sleepwear to his face. He was being kind and generous, very unlike himself. She still wanted to slam the door on him. Instead of voicing her displeasure, she took the clothes he offered her.

“Did you have to slap me?” His cheek was red and she thought she could see the outline of her palm, which pleased her. The mark would fade, as all of his marks and injuries faded or healed. If she thought she would get to slap him again, she would have tried her luck. For a bit more pain, she pinched his right cheek and he swatted her hand aside. The frown he adopted reminded her that he wasn’t always so delicate with her. She was slowly pressing on his nerves. “I should return the favor,” he thought aloud. She looked over his shoulder, silently indicating that she wanted him to leave. He knew exactly what she wanted, so he closed them both into the bathroom and motioned toward the bathtub. “Go ahead. Don’t let me interrupt.”

“We both know you’re hoping I’ll cave and ask you to join me, because you feel like a complete asshole and you think I’m going to help you feel better,” she frowned, setting her clothing down on the edge of the sink. He didn’t look away from her, so there was an awkward minute where they stared at one another. “I think you deserve to feel like shit. Do you have any idea how difficult you’ve made it for me? He was my partner. I was with him twenty-four hours a day. And now he’s gone, because you didn’t like how he put you on the spot, so you decided it was better to verbally end him.” She considered taking the risk and attempting to slap him again, as evidenced by the way the fingers on her right hand twitched. He caught the movement and arched a brow at her, silently daring her to give it a shot. She wasn’t a fool. “How are you going to fix this?”

“You’re going to join me for the chunin exams, then you’ll be with Itachi and Kisame to collect Naruto. The sooner this is over, the sooner Kakashi will come to his senses and see that my way is the right way.”

“You aren’t even ready for the nine tails.”

“Then he can sit and rot until I say we’re ready.”

“So you’ll get him back by doing exactly what he doesn’t want you to do, thereby cementing the fact that you’re an asshole,” she frowned, waiting for him to fully grasp the words. He didn’t appreciate her need to call him names, but she’d made a solid point. He wasn’t showing any positive feelings for Kakashi. He wasn’t showing the bare minimum of concern when he’d said he cared for Kakashi. She told herself it was because of Obito’s upbringing and his rough years as a missing nin, but the excuses only went so far. “Tell me why I shouldn’t abandon you right now and spend my time searching the continents for Kakashi,” she demanded, though her tone was nicer than she’d intended. He narrowed his eyes at her.

“You were supposed to help bring this plan to fruition. You’re with me until the end. Your doubt in me and in Tsuki no Me is aggravating. In the end, I don’t need you anymore, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want you.”

“It’s aggravating because I know you can do more than this. You’re capable of anything you set your mind to, and you insist on this fever dream from an ancestor that was stricken from Uchiha records. Where’s the Obito that played in the snow with me? Where’s the Obito who wakes me up with exploratory touches? Where’s the Obito who carried me all the way from Yumegakure?”

“You think I’m capable of anything?”

“Yes!” She ran her hands over her face, as if the sudden brush of her hands would relax her tense facial muscles. She couldn’t wipe the unhappy expression from her face, but she tried. She really believed he had goodness in him that she wanted to see at every opportunity. If he embraced that part of himself, their number of disagreements would drop, and Kakashi would return. “I really believe that,” she added. He wasn’t good for her. He was toxic—everything about him was toxic. They were both messes, and Kakashi had made them better than they truly were, just by being with them. “It’s just that this isn’t what I want. I want to be the most important person in your life. I want you to stop for five fucking seconds and appreciate what you have. Be that Obito all of the time.” She didn’t know why she bothered anymore. She wasn’t as convincing as she wanted to be, or they would have given up on Tsuki no Me years ago. It was too late to fix everything, since Han was already dead. It was too difficult for Obito to simply stop. He had a taste, and he was addicted.

“Are you going to slap me if I ask to join you?” She sighed and gave up on talking to him, because he’d focused too much on her compliments. He crossed the distance between them and drew her into his arms. She thought about kneeing him in the balls, but she gave up and leaned against him. They would find Kakashi again. She was impatient and impulsive, and every second without Kakashi fed her anxiety. “Help me find Orochimaru and we’ll spend the next six months looking for Kakashi. I’ll apologize, but I won’t make any promises about Naruto. That’s what I’m offering,” he said, his hands warm against her back. She sighed against his neck, because it was better than she expected, and much better than nothing.

“‘We’?”

“Yes.”

“If this is some kind of trick, I swear—,” she began, cut off when his hands slid down to settle on her lower back. She wrinkled her nose at the thought of him abandoning her partway through the six-month hunt. She couldn’t help but notice Kakashi’s absence. She actually frowned at the thought of the last time they’d hugged one another. “What if we don’t find him? What next? If he doesn’t use his chakra and his eye is covered, we’re out of luck. The chakra the eye uses is so minimal now. It’s almost nonexistent, when he puts effort into it.” She pulled back so she could see his face. He’d clearly heard her questions, but he looked unsure. He was supposed to be the strong one, her rock, and he didn’t know what to do. It was a game of cat and mouse. It was another game of hide-and-seek. “You don’t know,” she mumbled, her disappointment laced in her tone.

“This is a waiting game. I know you hate them, but this is all we have right now. I can’t just present him to you. That’s something I’m incapable of doing,” he admitted, as if she needed the admission at all.

She leaned in to kiss him and the rest of what he wanted to say was lost. They kissed for several minutes, then he reached for the zipper on her romper and waited for her to pull away; when she didn’t pull away, he slowly began to unzip the clothing, exposing more and more of her to the warm lighting in the room. He apologized to her in the soft kisses he pressed to her lips and the gentle way he ran his hands over her skin, but each apology fell away, wasted implications forgotten for something physical. He forced her to focus on him instead of endlessly sensing for someone who didn’t want to be found. She pulled her arms free of her romper and he pushed the clothing down over her thighs. His black shirt came off first, and then each article of clothing was just as forgotten as her own. Every touch was endless comfort, and the way his hands moved over her body was surprisingly delicate, given the fact that his cheek was still red. To make up for hurting him, she pressed her lips to his sore cheek, as if she could kiss the lingering sting away. It was so easy to blame him, even easier to forgive him, because he drove the ache away.

She tried to run a bath, but he boxed her in against the sink, then the bathroom door. She thought he would take her right there, but he gripped her hips and leaned in to pepper kisses and love bites along her neck. She rested the back of her head against the door, tipping it back to expose more of her throat for him. He surprised her when he lifted her from her feet and threw her over his shoulder. She shouted at first, then she couldn’t help her laughter. With Chinatsu downstairs, they left their clothing in the bathroom and retreated to their bedroom, where one futon remained against the wall, all the reminder she needed to feel fresh sadness. But he distracted her again when he set her down on her feet, and she distracted him by drawing him into another kiss that was too nice for her, one that tasted of plums from the fruit he’d eaten for lunch. He was hard against her, and it was something she understood, something she was used to. It was odd being with Obito alone, knowing Kakashi wouldn’t return to join them, knowing Kakashi wouldn’t fall asleep with them or wake up with them. It almost felt wrong. And then Obito squeezed her ass, making her forget the feeling in favor of the harsh grip he had on her.

“Wait.” He’d turned her around, expecting her to get on her hands and knees, but she stopped him. She placed a hand at the back of his neck and brought him in for more kisses that lacked the clumsy passion coloring their usual exchanges. “I want to see you,” she explained, the words spoken into the miniscule space between their lips.

She needed to see him. She needed to see every emotion crossing his face. She needed to see the way his eyes looked when he studied her body. She needed to know it was him, because she didn’t want to think of Kakashi. As she lay on the futon, he left a burning trail of kisses down the center of her chest and over her stomach. Before he could taste her, she crooked a finger to get him to return to her lips. His right hand went between them and he gripped his cock, where he lined up with her entrance. She couldn’t say that she hated him, even after his cruel treatment of Kakashi, and that said a lot about her priorities. The moment he guided himself into her, she brushed her hand over his left cheek, and he kissed her wrist. Maybe she should have wanted him to choke her, to make her breathless; maybe she should have wanted him to spank her, to match the hurt she already felt. But he chased away thoughts and overrode feelings with every slow, deep thrust. He paused to kiss her and to touch her breasts he’d once insulted, and she was reminded of the differences between their first time and their present time.

He touched her clit, but she guided his hand back to her breast. It was about the feel of him inside of her, and every movement that had him withdrawing and reentering, because he knew what she liked, because even after their time apart, he still remembered. He always remembered. He kissed and licked and bit her neck, marking her in the way that her nails left red lines along his back. As he kissed her lips, she parted them for his tongue, where they shared moans between them. When she finally told him to touch her, he rubbed beautiful patterns over her clit.

“Yes!” He responded by speeding up, his deep, fast thrusts contrasting with the slow way he rubbed her clit. He pressed down until she gasped and moved her hips against him, forcing him to provide more friction. She was chasing a high, her head wonderfully silent, her anxiety buried beneath the tingling spreading over her body. “Yes, Obito,” she moaned, her hands squeezing her breasts. “Please,” she continued, a chorus of the word following, “Obito. Obito!” She arched her back as she came and she felt him as he came inside of her. She felt the pulse of her walls around his cock and she slumped against the sheets. They stayed like that until he could easily withdraw from her, then he settled beside her on the futon. He opened his mouth to speak, so she turned onto her side to see his profile.

He turned to face her and ran his hand along her side, guiding his palm along her curves. She expected him to scold her for using his name, as if Chinatsu had ever heard of him, as if the woman even cared, but he didn’t. He brushed some of her hair behind her right ear. “If I stopped, if I gave up, what would we do? Where would we go?” She sat up, but he didn’t move from his spot. Feeling self-conscious, she drew a sheet over herself and covered her chest. She worried that he was leading her on because of his post-orgasmic bliss; she worried he would pretend as if the conversation never occurred. She turned her head to see him and he moved onto his back, where he folded one arm behind his head. “I’m capable of anything,” he reminded her, as if she’d forgotten her own words.

“We could move to the Land of Grass, maybe even the Land of Snow. We could probably settle anywhere we wanted to. Who’s going to stop us?” Her question made him chuckle, and she felt her lips twitch for a smile that encouraged her own laughter. She felt as if the world belonged to them, as if they could go anywhere their hearts desired. “We could get rid of Pein and Konan and rule over Amegakure. I would put up with the gloomy weather for you,” she informed him, hoping he understood how much that meant to her, how much he meant to her. He hummed and nodded, as if he appreciated her suggestion. “Is it pathetic that I don’t care, as long as we’re all together?”

“A little,” he joked, earning himself a flick to his nose. She settled against him, her head resting against his chest, her leg thrown over his. She could imagine that perfect world, where they wouldn’t know limitations. He rubbed her back, his hand gradually going lower, until it dipped beneath the sheet covering her. “Give me six months.” She tried to sit up to see his face, but he held her tightly to himself. There was nothing but sincerity in his voice, but she’d been fooled by him one too many times. He lied too. But the thought of them abandoning Akatsuki to do whatever their hearts desired was too appealing. Obito had done enough. The world could sort itself off. What was another war?

“We could stay here and tend to the rice paddies. I think Kakashi would like it.”

“How appealing.”

“I thought you might say that.”

He glanced down at the top of her head, then he rolled his eyes. She missed the smile on his face. She’d drawn the sheet over him too, but her right hand slid underneath it so she could touch his cock. He made a sound that encouraged her, so she moved beneath the sheet to continue working on his cock, hoping to get him hard again. He pushed the sheet down to reveal the way she looked as she tugged and licked him. Sex was the solution to any problem. He forced her to take every inch of him into her mouth and she moaned around his cock. He whispered her name as she bobbed her head, but she pulled back before he could cum. They didn’t talk as she lowered herself onto his cock. They exchanged more moans that became the chorus for all the possibilities before them. He came first, but he rubbed her clit until she came. She kept straddling him until she caught her breath, then she collapsed next to him and turned her head to see him. His eyes were closed, but she knew he wasn’t asleep.

“Would you really leave for us? Are you really going to consider it?” She couldn’t help the way she spoke to him, every word full of hope she thought she’d killed off years ago. He opened one of his eyes and glanced in her direction, but he didn’t immediately answer her. She thought he’d already gone back on his words, but he curled up next to her and rested his head on her chest. He could have spewed every lie in the world, and she would have believed him.

“If I leave, I’d leave for you.” She ran a hand over his mussed hair and he kissed her skin. They needed to shower before bed, but she didn’t care. She cared about his response, about the pretty words he spewed just for her. She didn’t know what finally tipped the scale, if Kakashi’s abandonment really bothered him enough to shake up his world. “You asked me if I loved Kakashi,” he said, his eyes focused on the curtains swaying with the evening breeze. She tried to see something in the movement that held his attention, but she learned it was an excuse to focus on something other than his feelings. “I could love him.” It wasn’t the answer she wanted, but it was the answer she’d expected. She didn’t stop holding him, and he made no move to leave her, even when the silence became unbearable.

“He thinks I love you more,” she admitted, thinking that it would clear the air. She expected him to move, to see her face, to stare into her eyes, anything other than to remain as he was. But not looking at him when she spoke made it easier for her to admit. She recalled when Kakashi said he wasn’t going anywhere, how he’d looked at her when he’d said the words. He’d lied. Men often lied.

“Do you?” She refused to answer him, because the question was ridiculous. They didn’t need to question the depths of her love for them. Her silence encouraged him to touch her, to rub his hand over her stomach, to press kisses to her chest. He found his answer in the silence. “You do, don’t you?” She didn’t understand how she could love someone like him; she didn’t understand what had possessed her. Kakashi was kind to her, he was patient with her, and he was willing to go above and beyond for her. And she still loved Obito more. She felt like trash. Kakashi really was better off without them. “Say it.” He pulled back and leaned up on an elbow, so he could see her face. He kept touching her, as if he were trying to draw the answer out of her. She pressed her lips together and turned over, but he forced her onto her back again. “Say it,” he repeated, his tone firm. She didn’t know why he needed to hear the words. Even Kakashi had read the signs. Maybe Obito meant to punish her a little more by humiliating her.

“You already know the answer. What are you going to do with it?”

Chapter Text

"This place is deserted."

Kana flipped through the papers scattered across the desk and realized they were detailed notes on the countless experiments conducted on children. Some of the procedures were too gruesome, even for her. A filing cabinet tucked underneath one side of the desk contained folders on every subject, some with pictures, and some without. One seven-year-old girl with boil release had her chakra extracted and injected into another subject, an eight-year-old boy with no prior shinobi experience. The experiment had been a complete failure, and both children had died. In the end, Orochimaru had experimented on the girl's corpse until he was faced with the decision to embalm her. He’d chosen to cremate her and bury her in a mass grave filled with the results of other failed experiments. Kana stuffed the folder back into the drawer and slammed the drawer closed. All of the folders likely contained stories with the same ending. Orochimaru was ruthless in his pursuit of power and immortality, even though he wore the guise of the misunderstood scientist just trying to better the world.

Obito circled around the large lab, examining large, cylindrical tanks filled with decomposing remains. In some, the water level had dropped, showing that the base had been vacant for some time. The place was another failure, the third of the week, but every empty base only added to Obito's drive to find one that was inhabited and in use. The horrors they stumbled across disgusted Kana, but Obito didn't seem to care. There was no difference between experimentation and torture. Maybe she was growing soft. She'd done worse, under the instruction of a superior. Times had changed, but darkness still prevailed. She turned to examine the lab equipment and labeled test tubes filled with blood, then she heard glass shatter and water flooded the room. Obito shook his right hand, his glove bearing tears from the impact of his fist against the glass tank. He walked over the glass, the jagged little pieces crunching under his feet, and joined her at the workstation, as if he hadn’t lost his temper. One of the tubes of blood had the name Jugo, and she recognized it instantly. She held the tube up for Obito to read the name, but he didn’t recognize it. She’d never told him about her talk with Kimimaro.

“I want him.” It was a statement she hoped he supported. He took the tube between his index finger and his thumb and turned it around and around to see the movement of the blood. Maybe the base wasn’t as old as they’d thought. He put the tube back and settled his hand on her lower back.

“Then we’ll take him.” It was a simple sentence that meant everything to her. He said it as if he meant to liberate Jugo all on his own and present the boy to her like some kind of present. He didn’t ask why she wanted Jugo. He didn’t press her for any more information. She could have kissed him, except they both felt the overwhelming presence of Orochimaru’s chakra in the northeastern part of the Land of Rice Fields. Why he chose to reveal himself was a mystery, but his chakra signature was unmistakable. It reminded her of a snake ready to strike. “Are you ready to fight a sannin?” She smirked at the challenge, knowing that they could take on the powerful man on their own, that they didn’t need Pein to convince Orochimaru to stand down, that they didn’t need Itachi to scare Orochimaru.

“I was born ready,” she quipped. Before they left, Kana searched for Jugo’s file amongst the collection. She didn’t flip through the pages before they left, but she assumed they would have time once they defeated Orochimaru. Something told her she was making a mistake, but she ignored the feeling in favor of embracing her excitement. It wasn’t every day that she had the chance to fight a legend.

She thought that the base they encountered would have another maze to navigate; she thought they would waste an hour or more trying to reach Orochimaru. But Orochimaru was waiting for them, as if he’d known that they’d been tracking him for days. He was a powerful man, so it was possible he’d sensed them. She didn’t know the full extent of his powers. Most people who encountered him were captured and died in captivity or killed on the spot. She thought that he would tower over them, that his height and stature would be more intimidating; instead, Obito stood over him by almost two inches. Kana thought that separating from Obito would be the best way to approach the fight. While she’d expected Tobi to accompany her, Obito had chosen to parade as Madara. With his gunbai on his back, he looked ready to fight a war, and maybe that was what would happen when they finally began to fight. Orochimaru dismissed Obito and focused on her. The moment she activated her sharingan, he only cared about her and what her eyes offered him. She understood how Itachi must have felt, like prey in the sight of a predator. Like Itachi, she wasn’t easily swayed by displays of strength. She had no intention of letting Orochimaru have her eyes or her body.

He summoned snakes from the sleeves of his top that dove at Obito, so she summoned her mountain lions to take care of the snake summons so they could focus on Orochimaru. Orochimaru stretched his neck out, as if he meant to swallow her whole, but she side-stepped him and swung her wakizashi, severing his head. His head turned to a bunch of snakes that she fought off with fire. While Orochimaru’s neck returned to his body and his head rose from within his top, Obito swung the gunbai and engaged Orochimaru in a fight. She didn’t expect Orochimaru to summon more snakes, but she should have, considering he was a snake himself. Her mountain lions fought beside her as she knocked the larger snakes aside. Orochimaru couldn’t land a single hit on Obito, and that fascinated the man just as much as her sharingan. Obito struck Orochimaru in the side with the gunbai and the wind cut into his side, allowing more snakes to spill forth. She knew the sannin was playing with them.

Orochimaru tried the same trick he’d used on her, but she sent a flame dragon that forced him to withdraw. Whether he saw Obito’s sharingan or not, they were battling to keep him from capturing them. She didn’t know that he meant to brand them with a seal. She didn’t know every detail of his plans for them. The killing intent that flooded the area had her jerking to a stop. Her lungs felt as if they’d stopped working, and sweat gathered on her brow. Obito seemed unaffected by the show of strength. Though it took her a minute to calm her racing heart and regain control of her movements, she overcame the killing intent and countered with twin lions built of blazing fire. Obito added a stream of fire to the attack, increasing the size of her flaming tires. Orochimaru seemed to be consumed by the fire, since he wasn’t in the smoking crater left behind, but he emerged from the smoke like a ghost and smirked at them. He engaged Obito in taijutsu that had Obito entirely on the defensive, until she threw several shuriken at Orochimaru. He thought that he could dodge and the weapons would impale Obito, but he was wrong. The shuriken passed right through and landed in the grass.

The major hit she’d landed on him had blood blossoming from his gut, and the injury only served to anger him. She wasn’t like Obito, so the strikes he delivered in taijutsu hurt. They exchanged blows until Obito severed Orochimaru’s hand. The hand turned to a snake, but Obito simply stomped on the serpent and collected the ring left behind. Orochimaru tried to bite Kana, but she slashed at his face and he backed off again. He was faster than she expected, but not too fast for her sharingan. The fight went on for too long, with no clear winner in sight. When they separated, they studied one another in the wrecked clearing. Obito joined her, where he presented her with Orochimaru’s ring. The ring had ku for sky, and she slipped it onto her thumb, since the ring was too large for her pinky.

“Leaving so soon?” Orochimaru made no move to attack them. The ring obviously meant something, or Obito wouldn’t have bothered to retrieve it. Why he waited so long made no sense to her, but she assumed it had to do with collecting the tailed beasts. Killing Orochimaru never really killed Orochimaru. The man was a cockroach. He always found some way to survive.

“We’ll come back for Jugo when he’s away. I promise,” Obito said, his voice soft enough so it wouldn’t travel across the distance between Orochimaru and themselves. She glanced in the direction of the base, where she felt an abnormal amount of nature chakra, then she nodded. Jugo could wait. She would repay Kimimaro again for his usefulness, but she wouldn’t rush the retrieval. For all she knew, Jugo was dead. “We have what we came here for. You aren’t worth my time.” Orochimaru frowned at the words and lashed out once more, but by the time his teeth almost grazed Kana’s neck, they were vanishing into kamui. When they were safe, she wiped the saliva from her neck. “Did he bite you?” Obito pulled the collar down on her cloak and examined her neck. She hadn’t felt Orochimaru’s teeth puncture her skin. The man had acted like a vampire from one of the fictional story books. “Never let him bite you. He applies a seal. He would have marked you as his next vessel.”

“Yeah,” she mumbled, distracted by the thought of what had almost happened to her. She still felt his saliva on her neck, and it made her sick to her stomach. She didn’t like the sannin. All of his accomplishments and his past service for Konoha meant absolutely nothing to her. He was no better than the ground beneath her feet. “Was the ring really worth it?” He took her hand in his and she looked down at the kanji for sky. It looked like an ordinary ring to her. She wondered if it had special abilities.

“It marks you as a member of the Akatsuki. With it, you’ll be able to join in on our meetings and aid in sealing the tailed beast instead of witnessing it as an outsider. It’s something I’m offering you.” She looked up at him and contemplated the meaning behind the ring. Sky. Void. She could understand both meanings. Akatsuki kept her grounded. She couldn’t help but feel that the ring was solidifying Obito’s continuation with Tsuki no Me. She hoped that she was wrong. “Well?” He was impatient for an answer, but she didn’t know what to say. Accepting the ring meant much more than simply accepting a piece of jewelry.

“Yeah,” she echoed again, unable to say anything else. “Does this mean you’re not leaving?” She couldn’t help but ask, because the ring and the offer made her think that he’d gone back on his word. He brushed his thumb over her hand, his gloved hand warm around her own. “You said six months, Obito,” she reminded him, her frustration growing.

“I was hoping it would mean more than that,” he admitted, rubbing the back of his head. The marks on his mask appeared especially harsh, because she was so used to his bright orange mask. Looking at him made her think of someone else. But his mask didn’t matter then. If he expected her to find some other meaning behind the gesture, he was mistaken. “You asked me what I was going to do, and this is what I’m going to do.” She was sore, tired, and over guessing games, so she frowned and looked down at the ring. He used his other hand to tip her chin up, forcing her to look at him again. “It’s not the best engagement ring. I’ll get you something better, if things change.” It was his way of implying that he hadn’t forgotten his promise of six months.

“Oh.”

“Oh? That’s it?”

“What do you expect me to say? Did you hit your head? Is this another type of fever dream? Did Orochimaru give me that hickey?” Obito gave her a deadpan expression and she closed her mouth. He expected her to say yes and accept his odd, informal proposal, but she was too suspicious of him. He was being nice and especially romantic. She assumed that if he ever proposed to her, he would do it after sex, where he had nothing to offer her but dick. He was patiently waiting for her to gather herself enough to give a genuine response. “Do you really mean it? You aren’t going to take this back in a fit of rage?”

“This is the longest way to say no that I’ve ever heard of.” He still sounded amused, even though she assumed he was nervous. She removed his mask and leaned in to press a kiss to his lips. He’d proposed to her with a stolen ring tying them to the Akatsuki, and she couldn’t find it in her to care anymore. He wrapped his arms around her and she tried to imagine a better moment. She’d always thought that it would be Kakashi. He kissed her again and forced the thoughts away. They had six months ahead of them, and they would spend every day searching for the man. “You know you still haven’t said yes.”

“Take off your clothes.”

Chapter Text

Finding Kakashi proved almost impossible. But five months into their search, they finally caught a break. Kakashi had used most of his chakra in a battle, so his chakra burned brightly until it suddenly vanished. The sudden way his chakra vanished made Kana think that he'd been killed, but Obito interrupted her silent panic by stating that Kakashi was in kamui. In that moment, she learned that Obito could sense chakra in other dimensions. He'd far surpassed her. They left the mountainous northern lands of the Land of Earth and appeared in kamui, where Kakashi was unconscious and bleeding all over the concrete. It would be another mark to accompany a terrible memory. While Kana worked to remove his shirt, Obito tried to apply pressure to the worst of the wounds. He picked senbon from the man while Kana checked for arterial bleeds. Kana felt frantic, because she didn't know what to do when Kakashi needed attention everywhere. Obito had to slap her to get her to focus on something other than the way Kakashi's blood looked on her hands. When Kakashi stopped breathing, she stepped in to do chest compressions to the sound of her humming. He came around and choked up water, so Obito turned him onto his side.

“He needs a fucking hospital.”

“At this rate, I should study to be a doctor.”

Obito threw one of Kakashi’s arms over his shoulders and Kana took the man’s other arm. The transition from kamui into the cold, snowy landscape of the Land of Snow was a complete shock. She thought that Obito would be the one to act completely unreasonable and demanding, but she was wrong. As soon as they entered the hospital, she surveyed the room with her sharingan and grabbed the first nurse she saw. She shoved the woman towards Kakashi with the demand that the woman fix him. She hated when the hospital staff took Kakashi away, even more when the nurse she’d manhandled told her she wasn’t allowed to accompany the staff into surgery. She understood why Obito had been arrested. Obito grabbed the fist she swung at the nurse and dragged her back from the startled woman. He didn’t apologize for her behavior, so she went quietly. In the waiting area, he pushed her into a chair and she crossed one leg over the other, entirely done with the hospital. She wanted to be there when Kakashi opened his eyes, even if he didn’t want to see her, even if all he wanted to do was lash out at her. Beside her, Obito hung his head.

“You know we need to see what happened,” Obito said, interrupting her brooding. She did want to see the aftermath of Kakashi’s last battle. She wanted to understand what drove him to put everything he had into the fight. Silently considering leaving Kakashi alone, she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the far wall. Obito lightly squeezed her right thigh, which made her sigh. He wasn’t being a complete bastard. “It’s going to take time for him to come around, and we might be able to get a little revenge,” Obito tempted her, the smile revealed in his tone. She glanced in the direction of surgery, then she nodded.

“I’m going to be pissed if he wakes up and we aren’t here for him,” she added, saying something they already knew. Obito waited until the people were distracted, then he took them into kamui. He tried to leave, but she squeezed his hand, silently telling him to wait. The red marks on the concrete fed into her desire for revenge, until all she saw was red. “Do you know where we’re going?” If he didn’t know, they had a problem. He made a so-so motion with his hand, then he drew her into his arms and they reappeared in shallow water, along the shore of what appeared to be an island. The fog made her think of the Land of Water, but the shore was rockier than she expected.

“Naruto! Stupid! Yamato-sensei shouldn’t be left alone!”

“Yeah, yeah. That bastard has him. We need something to eat, don’t we?”

Kana watched the boy descend the rocky hillside to reach the shore, her eyes glued to his every move. It made sense, in some way. Kakashi had gone to Naruto. Obito stopped her before she could storm over to the boy and demand answers. He took the lead and carefully navigated along the rocky shore, leaving her to trail behind him and stew in her own jealousy. Of course Kakashi left them for Naruto. Of course the man cared more about some idiotic kid with a death wish. The civilian girl stood on the hill leading down to the shore, but she took a step backwards when Kana looked in her direction. The pink-haired girl seemed easy to intimidate and more intelligent than the idiot currently greeting Obito. She wanted to stab Naruto, so she purposely turned and approached the civilian-born girl. The girl had a kunai out and ready, which had Kana’s lips twitching for a frown. Some genin were so jumpy, jumpier than any experienced shinobi Kana had ever met. She heard Obito’s ridiculous Tobi voice, so she decided to skip the charade and get to the point. She knocked the girl’s kunai aside and when the girl opened her mouth to shout for her teammate, Kana slapped a palm over her mouth.

“Listen closely. If you give me the answers I’m looking for, you and your stupid teammate get to walk away, got it?” The girl hesitated, her eyes shooting to the side, as if she could see the house behind her. Kana glanced in that direction, but saw no one at the windows. She had time to interrogate. Kana withdrew her hand and the girl’s mouth remained closed. “Did you meet a man named Hatake Kakashi?”

“You mean the missing nin that defended us?” The girl was wringing her hands, still looking like she wanted to run away. Kana wondered if she would defend Naruto or run for help. To regain her attention, Kana poked her large forehead.

“Bingo. Did you see the fight?”

“Well, Yamato-sensei got captured, and then that guy, Kakashi, appeared. He fought Zabuza, and then this kid came. It all happened so fast.”

Zabuza. That didn’t make any sense. He and Kakashi had been on good terms. Tobi’s shriek had her looking away, and the girl took that opportunity to run for help. Naruto was laughing, holding up the smallest fish imaginable, while Tobi tried to hold up a giant, squirming fish. Kana clicked her tongue and turned her back on the fleeing girl. They had to escape before she ever returned with help, so Kana made her way down the hillside to join the two idiots on the shore. Tobi handed off the fish to Naruto and Naruto held it in a bear hug, even as it squirmed to get away from him. He looked too much like Minato, but he acted too much like Kushina. Every second in his presence reinforced her opinion of him. He was short for his age, and he looked scrawny in his ridiculous orange jacket and pants, both of which were too big on him. She wondered if his appearance had more to do with his lack of money than a personal choice. When Tobi threw an arm around her shoulders and squished her to his side, she let the thought go.

“This is Kana-chan!” Tobi made kissy noises at her and she turned her head away to hide her smile. Naruto squinted at her as he continued struggling with the fish. He had no idea that Sakura had abandoned him. Kidnapping him was too easy. “This is Menma!”

“Hey! My name’s Naruto! I’m going to be the next Hokage, dattebayo! So you better remember my name!” Kana’s expression fell. She finally understood what Kakashi saw in the kid, with his big dream, his verbal tic, and his friendly disposition. He really did remind her of a young Obito, before everything went to hell. Even though she saw bits and pieces of other people, her heart didn’t yearn for him or hurt for him. Kakashi had a connection she just couldn’t form. “Hey, you alright, lady?”

“I remember another little boy with such big dreams,” Kana said, not looking in Obito’s direction. Tobi acted like he had no idea who she was talking about. The way he moved to stand beside Naruto, to look just as caught up in her words as the twelve-year-old, told her that he understood. “He used to wear goggles,” Kana began, getting a big grin from Naruto, “and he was dismissed as being hopeless. He had no family. Unlike you, he was from a clan that didn’t want him. He was bullied and belittled. It only took one person to believe in him to keep him going.” Naruto stared at her, waiting for her to continue the story. She didn’t know how to look into his blue eyes and tell him that Obito’s life had taken a turn for the worst. She placed a hand on Naruto’s head and ruffled his hair.

“But he never became Hokage,” Naruto said, as if she didn’t know, as if she’d simply stopped before a happy ending. She waited for him to exclaim that he would be different, but he didn’t. He genuinely wanted to know the rest of Obito’s story, when the story wasn’t complete. She tapped her chin, as if she were having trouble recalling, and Naruto stomped his foot. “You can’t stop there!” Tobi echoed the words and she looked at him, even as she felt the approaching chakra signatures.

“He found another calling. The next time we meet, I’ll tell you the rest of the story. Do me a favor and tell your sensei to fuck off and die.”

“That’s not very nice, Kana-chan!”

“Naruto! Get away from them!” Yamato interrupted them, one crutch under his right arm. He was dead on his feet, but he still came. Naruto didn’t move, because he saw nothing wrong with them. He didn’t understand the danger he was in, even if they had no plans to kidnap him. “He’s not here,” Yamato informed them, stumbling as he descended the hill. “Naruto, get over here.” Yamato used an authoritative tone and Naruto snapped to attention, losing his grip on the fish in the process. Tobi collected the fallen fish and threw it back into the water, then he brushed his gloved hands together.

“We know he’s not here, idiot, and we have no interest in your genin,” Kana lied, her eyes narrowed on Yamato. The man lost his crutch and tipped too much to one side. Sasuke had the chance to catch his sensei, but he didn’t, not that she was surprised. Sasuke had changed. Itachi had scarred him for life. “It’s nice seeing you again, Sasuke. Surrounded by losers, aren’t you? I imagine they’re holding you back. They don’t understand your obsession with revenge; they don’t understand that it should be nurtured,” Kana purred, smirking at him as he bristled. He likely thought she had something to do with the massacre, or maybe that she was just a survivor that lost her loyalty. He charged at her, while Tobi ran over to see if Yamato needed help.

“You know where he is!” Sasuke accused her as he made precise strikes that she dodged. She made no effort to fight him, because he lacked power. He was better than his teammates, his speed easily counted as chunin level, but he was unrefined. He was wasting away in Konoha. “Tell me!” She caught his fist, gripped his elbow, and dislocated his arm in one smooth movement. Distracted by the pain, he missed her fist. He fell onto his backside, gripping his limp arm as if he meant to fix it himself. “Dobe, don’t!”

“Leave him alone!” Naruto jumped in front of Sasuke and she watched his eyes flicker red. The image alone made her laugh. He thought she was laughing at his attempt to defend his teammate, but she was laughing at his lack of control. He was a spitfire, just like Kushina. “Take me seriously!” Yamato caught Naruto’s right hand before he could thrust a kunai into her gut. She might have let him hit her, if only to laugh at his poor fighting skills.

“Ah ah, there’s no need for fighting! Shame on you, Kana-chan. Tenzo-san, eh, uh, I guess it’s Yamato now, isn’t it? Whelp! It’s time for us to go. It was nice meeting you, Naruto!” Tobi swatted Yamato’s hands aside when the man tried forming hand seals. The two locked eyes and Yamato’s brows furrowed, because he knew that the sharingan eye didn’t match Tobi’s persona. Tobi walked right onto the water and into the growing fog, but Kana hesitated. “Oh, Kana-chan,” he called for her in a sing-song voice.

“We both know we’ll be meeting again. You aren’t off limits. Your lingering feelings are going to get you killed, Tenzo. I’m also not above killing these children in front of you,” Kana calmly stated, feeling Yamato’s anger stirring. He didn’t have the chakra to fight her, and they both knew it. Kana shoved Sasuke back to the ground, then she walked onto the water and joined Obito in the fog. She could feel his disapproval as he curled an arm around her. He planned on transporting them into kamui, but she held up a finger. “It was an altercation with Momochi Zabuza and Yuki Haku. I don’t know the reason behind the fight, and I don’t care. I’m not leaving this island until they’re both dead. Are you staying?”

"That's a wasted question. I'm the last person Kakashi wants to see."

She patted his side, then he lowered his arm from around her. They took the long way around the Land of Waves. They weren't in any hurry, because Kana knew exactly where Zabuza and Haku resided. Zabuza was in bad shape, worse than Haku, but she didn't care about their health statuses. She tried to draw her thoughts away from the numerous ways to murder them, including letting her summons eat them, but the only other thing to occupy her mind was the fact that Obito had ten days to come to a decision, and he hadn't broached the subject of their departure from Akatsuki. That made her angrier than thoughts of revenge. She understood that he needed time, because he'd spent over a decade dedicated to Tsuki no Me, but she also hated that he needed time. And he had no plans on repairing things with Kakashi, which meant Kakashi would feel unwelcome, even if Obito chose to leave Akatsuki. She didn't want to be the one to share the engagement news. She still felt like trash for feeling the way she felt.

"You're anxious."

"I'm angry."

"You're biting your lips. You do that when you're anxious. Are you nervous about the fight?"

"Stop being so fucking aware of what I'm doing. Be aware of our surroundings instead."

He turned his head away from her and she felt bad for scolding him when he'd only stated the obvious. As they were approaching a small beach, he caught her off guard by shoving her to the right. She stumbled and fell right into the water, where the current dragged her under. When she resurfaced, she coughed up a mouthful of water and dragged herself to shore. She greeted him by slapping her hand onto his mask and pushing him away from her. He clearly hadn't appreciated her tone, and she couldn't blame him. Using his words would have been preferable. She squeezed the excess water from her hair, but gave up on it and pulled it into a high ponytail. She needed it out of the way.

Zabuza and Haku had never met Obito. He would show up as Tobi and embarrass her with his words and actions, but she couldn't care less. She wanted answers; she wanted closure. Kakashi couldn't blame her for cleaning up his mess. After all, she hadn't hurt Naruto, and Yamato lived another day. Perhaps she was unnecessarily cruel to Sasuke, but she'd always thought he was a spoiled brat; he'd simply evolved into an obsessive prick. That would get him nowhere in life. In some ways, he'd stagnated. He'd never grown emotionally. She could understand someone like Sasuke, but it wasn't enough to alter her perception of him. Overall, she'd behaved.

"The Gato Company?" Kana saw a large vessel and shipping containers in the distance, each with the company name stamped across them. Obito pointed in the opposite direction, where an unfinished bridge rose from the morning fog. "What is the famous shipping magnate doing in such an impoverished place?"

"I have a feeling we're going to find out." Obito looked at the collection of thugs attracted to their sudden arrival. Kana went to draw her wakizashi, but Obito placed his hand over hers. "Gee, there sure are a lot of you! This place is so welcoming! Tobi is so grateful."

Apparently, they were going to play games.

Chapter Text

Tobi let two of the thugs push him around, being passed between them like some kind of toy, while Kana calmly observed the remaining group. Altogether, there were eight of them, and they thought numbers gave them the advantage. The men had swords that they didn’t deserve, just by the way they handled themselves. She didn’t think any of them were of any worth, but she remembered Obito’s desire to play along for as long as possible. When a fist passed through Tobi’s face, the man gasped and placed a hand over his heart, as if he couldn’t believe they’d caved and struck him. What happened in the Land of Waves was none of their business, but no one punched her fiancé and got away with it. She slapped the man who was brave enough to punch Tobi, and he stared at her with wide eyes and an open mouth, because she’d drawn blood just with her simple strike. He drew his sword, the blue hilt beautiful in the morning sunlight. She hummed in appreciation, but the blade itself wasn’t in excellent condition. He thought he was some kind of samurai. She knew what a real samurai had to offer, and he paled in comparison. When he swung at her in an arch, she kicked him in the stomach and his swipe missed. He groaned in pain, while his partner stepped in, the man appearing too pleased to fight her.

“Don’t you think two on one is a little unfair? I’m one woman,” Kana said, playing the woman card in some attempt to make the men feel guilty. Neither man fell for her trick, so she shrugged and tightened her fists, determined to fight them with her bare hands.

Tobi finally got tired of being shoved around and resorted to playfully jabbing his opponents instead of actually hurting them. Their frustration was refreshing. The man she’d kicked decided he wanted to lash out again, so she turned her body to dodge the strike and tugged his purple hat down over his face, blinding him. His partner saved him from being punched. The second man had an eye patch and tattoos all over his body. She could admire his ink, but she focused on his eye patch. He was ruthless with his attempts to injure her, and she respected his tenacity. He had more experience than his partner. If she had drawn her wakizashi, she would have cut the man’s topknot off; instead, she waited for him to realize he wasn’t going to strike her and pulled his eye patch forward, then released it and allowed it to slap him in the eye.

“Zori, Waraji, let’s go.” A well-dressed man stood on the street above the shore. His tiny sunglasses made his head look large. His hair was brown, but looked gray in the morning light. His purple tie stood out his yellow dress shirt, making him look ridiculous. Kana lowered her fists when the two men sheathed their swords. Waraji looked back at her with his narrowed eye, and she knew that he would try to engage her again. He was angrier than his partner, Zori, and she couldn’t blame him. “If you know what’s good for you, you won’t interfere in the Land of Waves.”

“It’s Gato!” Tobi pointed at the man and Gato frowned, likely looking at Tobi as if he were worthless. Instead of being intimidated, Tobi waved, excited at the prospect of meeting such a rich and powerful man. Gato was easily one of the top ten wealthiest men in the world. “Gato! What are you doing in the Land of Waves?” The direct question was met with a scoff, then Gato and his men retreated, leaving Kana and Tobi standing on the beach, both of them watching the group disappear around the corner of a grocery store. “It was worth a shot,” Tobi sighed, shrugging his shoulders. She laughed at his disappointed demeanor and flicked his mask.

“Let’s go. I’m sure it doesn’t concern us. I want to get out of here and get back to Kakashi.”

“Okay, Kana-chan!”

Tobi purposely walked in the wrong direction, so she grabbed him by the back of his cloak and dragged him in the correct direction. She knew he could sense Zabuza and Haku, so his cute attempt to make her laugh only annoyed her. He knew how much she wanted to get back to the hospital, and he insisted on wasting her time. He knew Kakashi didn’t want to see him, and he likely didn’t want to see Kakashi, but that wouldn’t stop her from being there for Kakashi, even if their relationship was on shaky ground. She tried not to think about Obito’s stance on Kakashi, because she recalled his admission with perfect clarity. He could love Kakashi. The emphasis meant everything. Tobi kept trying to hold her hand. On the ninth try, she gave up and let him happily swing their joined hands between them. She had to admit his light-hearted show of affection was amusing. It made her forgive him—she always forgave him.

With the presence of Gato’s posse, she didn’t understand why Yamato and his team of genin were on such a dangerous mission. In the end, it didn’t concern her, but it still made her wonder what drug Hiruzen had been on to assign the mission in the first place.

Tracking led them through the tiny village, where she saw what poverty truly meant. She'd never been poor. Her family had provided for her, until she was able to provide for herself. She'd lived comfortably, and still had money piling up in her bank account. The Land of Waves wasn't a hidden village though. Its people relied on fishing and the fruits and vegetables in the tropical climate. The presence of the shipping company should have brought more business and money to the island, but it seemed as if Gato meant to suck the place dry. He openly exploited the residents. She almost felt sorry for them.

The beggars didn't surprise her, but she still hated them. Most of their faces were dirty, and their clothes were tattered—it was clear they lived on the streets. She wondered how they'd lost their jobs and their homes, but the possible answers all pointed to Gato and his thugs. Tobi offered children money he revealed with simple magic tricks. He pulled ryo from behind their ears and doubled the number of ryo just by revealing his palms to them. She wondered if he truly cared about the children, all of them probably orphans. He'd received a stipend while in Konoha, at least until he'd made enough to support himself. The children of the island had no luxury. Even the ridiculously small stipend would have helped them. The children were in awe of his magic tricks, most of them fixated on discovering the secrets of the amateur magician. He would have made a great father.

"Alright, magician. Let's go," Kana said, trying to drag him away by his cloak. He produced a ryo from behind her ear and she smiled, just as amused and caught up in his display of magic. He gave every child enough ryo for some decent food, then he brushed his hands together. The children scattered, most of them going to the grocery store. "Now that you've bankrupted us, can we continue?"

"Displaying generosity feels good!" She saw the way his eye looked, how it gave away the fact that he was smiling. She couldn't tell if he was happy with his magic show or happy with her reaction. For all she knew, he could have hated every second. "Hm. We should go this way," Tobi decided, pointing in the right direction. He took her hand again and they continued on their short journey. Every few seconds, she would peek at him from the corner of her eye. "I'm so flattered that you're flirting with me, but Tobi is a good boy," he began, cut off by her lightly slapping the back of his head.

"If I were flirting, you'd know. Stop being a simpleton."

"I'm a simple man, Kana-chan."

The home at the end of the block was clearly abandoned, with one upstairs window broken and its paint chipping away. Part of the porch had collapsed, which meant that they had to circle around the home and enter through the backdoor. Zabuza was on the second floor, and Haku was across the island, hovering around Naruto and Sasuke. Without Haku present, Kana felt that their mission to eliminate the duo was too easy. She tested the doorknob, but the door was locked from the inside. Tobi snapped his fingers, as if the thought just hit him, then he passed through the door and unlocked it for her. The inside of the home was completely empty, except for a lone tea kettle on the stove top. The home had no electricity, but the windows lacked curtains, allowing natural light inside the home. Upstairs, Zabuza waited for them. Tobi hit a squeaky floorboard and Kana shot him a dirty look. The noise alerted Zabuza to their presence. Kana had hoped to kill the man in his sleep.

While Kana ascended the stairs, Tobi waited at the bottom and gave her a thumbs up that had her shaking her head at him. He allowed her to seek revenge on her own. It made her think he didn't care about Kakashi. That was a death spiral in itself. Instead of breaking down the door, Kana knocked on it and waited for Zabuza to invite her inside. The man was sitting on a futon, his body covered in bandages that went all the way down to his midsection, where a blanket covered the rest of him. She sat at his bedside and tried to think of anything but the way he'd helped Kakashi and her. He'd chosen the Land of Waves, when he'd had the opportunity to return to Kirigakure.

"You know why I'm here," she said, as if there were truly any doubt. Without the bandages he typically wore, he looked less intimidating, even with his sharpened teeth. "Tell me why you chose to fight Kakashi. Tell me why he's in the hospital right now and you aren't. Tell me why I shouldn't gut you like a fish." Zabuza frowned at her, all he could do in his state. He looked like a mummy, and she doubted he could lift his sword without making matters worse. Killing him in his sleep had been a miscalculation on her part. She wanted to know the truth.

"I'm a hired hand for Gato. My mission is to kill the bridge maker. Kakashi interfered, just like those kids and their sensei. It's nothing personal. Business is business."

"Gato?"

"He rules this place with an iron fist, and that bridge stands for the end of his embargo. The pay is good, and this place really doesn't mean anything to people like us. It's lucrative work."

"Huh," she mumbled, as if she'd never considered the whole picture. Her desire to murder Zabuza had fallen, replaced by her desire to murder Gato. In the end, Zabuza was right. Business was business. The one pulling the strings was Gato. She only had to remember how Gato's common thugs tried to beat up Tobi. "Your mission is over. If you interfere again, I'll make sure no one can identify your remains. Do you understand me?" Zabuza chuckled at her words, so she drew a kunai and stabbed it between his legs, far too close to his dick. "That will be the first thing to go."

"Get me my payment and we have a deal," he bargained, removing the kunai from between his legs. There was no harm in accepting the terms. The money meant nothing to her. Gato mattered. With no hesitation, she offered her gloved hand for a handshake. He smiled, his pointed teeth on full display, then he shook her hand.

The Gato Company was about to have new ownership.

Chapter Text

"You're really going to break into this building with me as Tobi? He's a comedian, in addition to being a fucking magician now."

"They're glorified bandits. You don't need me for this. Did you think I was going to be Madara for these clowns?"

Kana looked at the locked double doors that blocked their entry into the manor, then she kicked one until it gave way. Obito chuckled as she used her shoulder to force the rest of the way inside. The commotion attracted attention, but she didn't care. She drew her wakizashi and killed the inexperienced first, then she used one of the bodies as a shield. Tobi was absolutely no help, as expected. He ran around in circles, dodging weapons thrown at him, while she focused on reaching the stairs that would take her upstairs. Gato was there, clearly in hiding, because she saw his personal bodyguards slowly descending the stairs. Zori looked smug, as if she hadn't slapped the hell out of him on the beach. She pointedly ignored him in favor of focusing on Waraji. He was bloodthirsty, and she could appreciate that. She gave up watching over Tobi in favor of motioning the two swordsmen forward. The men acted as a pair.

"I've always preferred threesomes," she joked, watching color flood Zori's face. She flashed him a smile as she swung to sever his dominant hand. Waraji blocked her strike, not playing into her hands, and she countered by punching him in the throat. He'd pulled back enough to avoid having his windpipe collapse, which disappointed her. "Have you ever fought a shinobi?"

"Several times, and they all died at my hands," Waraji shared, a dangerous glint in his only eye. He expected her to take him seriously, so she did. She drew a kunai to parry while she tried to sever his arm at the bicep. "Get her friend. She can watch him die." She understood what he was trying to do, but it wasn't going to work. In the end, he only succeeded in angering her.

As Zori tried to fight Tobi, who stood there and avoided every blow, she locked blades with Waraji and put all of her strength behind it, forcing him back two steps before he relented and broke away. Tobi ducked down to avoid a blow that would have severed his head, then he crawled away while the man was distracted. He was an absolute embarrassment, but he was funny as hell. Kana pressed her lips together to keep from smiling, because it was her time to murder the people behind Kakashi’s injured state, not her time to smile and laugh at Tobi’s antics. When Zori grabbed the back of Tobi’s Akatsuki cloak, Kana threw her kunai at him and it hit him in the chest. The man’s sudden movement meant the blade hadn’t hit his heart, which disappointed her. In her distraction, Waraji disarmed her and tried to turn her own blade on her. She collected his discarded sword from the ground, then she kicked him hard in his right knee. When his leg buckled, she did one clean swipe and severed his head. Zori gasped at the sight of his partner’s gruesome death. Her attention turned to him and he quickly released the cloak so he could back away from her. He had no right to touch her idiot. She sent a fireball in his direction that mowed down several other men vying for her attention. Their screams had her ears ringing.

The fireball blew out a wall that sent part of the second floor crashing down in the living room. The men still standing were met with shuriken that neutralized them. She left them to moan in pain while she climbed the stairs to the second floor. Behind her, Tobi was slapping explosive tags on the survivors, claiming that he was so helpful. The first explosion had Kana tense, because it took her back to the war. By the second and third, she’d calmed herself enough to ignore the remainder. The only person she wanted to see was Gato, and she found him cowering in an upstairs closet. He’d hidden himself behind his collection of fancy suits, so Kana carefully moved each article of clothing aside until she could finally see him. He had his arms over his head and his whole body shook. His eyes were clenched shut, so he couldn’t see the person about to kill him. Annoyed, she grabbed him by his fancy jacket and dragged him out of the closet and into the master bedroom. He fell onto the fancy carpet, where he finally looked up at her. His fear was replaced by confusion. He’d expected Zabuza and Haku. After all, he’d only seen Kana one time. Her cloak should have meant something to him, but he was pathetic and uninformed.

“You are behind the mission that put my friend in the hospital. There was a little boy in the group guarding the bridge maker, the one Zabuza and Haku, shinobi you hired, attacked. It was an error on their part, and by extension, an error on your part.”

She sheathed her blade and the movement had him cowering in fear again. She didn’t want to kill him with her sword. She wanted to kill him with her bare hands. She recalled the level of intimacy involved in strangling someone to death. Back then, Kakashi had failed to kill her. Unlike Kakashi, she wouldn’t fail. Kana pried Gato’s arms away from his head and shoved him onto his back. Strangulation took time and strength, and Gato was no small man. She straddled him to stop him from trying to squirm out of her reach, then she pressed a hand to the center of his chest and slammed his upper body against the floor again. Instead of using her hands, she used her forearm to cut off his air supply. Every movement was met with more force. His lips took on a blue tinge that only encouraged her to put everything she had into stopping him from flailing. At her back, the door to the room opened. Obito quietly crossed the room and sat down at Gato’s head, where he held the man’s arms down so he would stop trying to strike her. Blue lips became a blue face, and then the jerky movements slowed, until Gato was silent and still. To make sure he was dead, Kana snapped his neck.

“The others in the manor are dead, but the village is full of the men Gato hired. They’re marching on the villagers,” Obito informed her, turning Gato’s head away from them. Neither of them needed to see his face anymore. Kana sat down at Gato’s side and contemplated the numerous options they had before them. They could help the villagers run off the thugs, but she didn’t feel like fighting for no reason. Tenzo still had his stupid genin team that were practically useless, but they could provide some help. She considered being cruel to Sasuke one last time, but she decided it wasn’t worth staying there. “Let’s go,” Obito said, standing. He helped her to her feet, then she kicked Gato’s corpse a couple of times to release the rest of her anger. When she felt slightly better, he held her and they traded the humidity for snow.

After they arrived at the hospital, Obito remained silent. His silence reinforced the anxious thoughts telling her that he didn’t like Kakashi at all, that he merely put up with Kakashi for her sake. He was unhelpful when it came to finding someone to answer the questions, but he placed his hand on her lower back as they were led to Kakashi’s room. Kakashi was still asleep, though the nurse insisted that it was perfectly normal. She didn’t relax until the woman finally left the room. Obito sat in the only chair in the room, while she grabbed the chart at the end of Kakashi’s bed. The papers were actually useful, but the list of injuries had her sick to her stomach. It sounded like Zabuza had meant to break every bone in Kakashi’s body. She passed the chart to Obito, then she sat down on the edge of Kakashi’s bed and looked at the bruises on his visible skin. Of course they’d removed his mask, which was unacceptable, but they’d replaced it with a surgical mask, as if they gave a damn about his privacy. She thought Obito would read over the paperwork, but he didn’t.

"You could at least pretend to read the chart," she frowned, itching for an argument to distract her. She heard him sigh and watched him flip through the pages, but she didn't think he was actually reading and processing the medical terminology. "You told me you cared," she hissed at him, kicking his chair. He blocked her foot when she tried to kick the chair a second time.

"I meant what I said. You're also aware that I don't love him, and he hates me right now. He's alive. He'll recover. Worrying isn't going to make it any easier. It's not going to get him to open his eyes, and it's not going to get him to want to come back. You know this. I shouldn't have to tell you this." She didn't like the dose of reality he dumped on her, but he was right. She knew it was unlikely that Kakashi would return to them. She could hope. That was all. He rested a hand on her thigh and she surrendered by placing her hand over his. He was right, and she hated it.

"Things will be different, if he comes back," she lied, both to him and herself. Obito nodded, even though they both knew he didn't agree with her. Nothing would change. Kakashi would always feel inferior. The man would always hurt, because he wasn't like them. There were some parts of him they couldn't change, like his sense of right and wrong, like the freedom he craved to live his own life the way he saw fit. "So I'm just supposed to give up and let go? You're asking me to do this again?"

"I'm not asking you, and I'm not telling you. He made the decision for you. I know you're thinking of every possible way to blame me," Obito said, not moving his hand from her leg.

She wrinkled her nose at the accusation, but he was right again. From the beginning, Obito had been himself. Kakashi had joined them and it had been a gradual decline from there. Kakashi loved the idea of a romance with Obito, but he loved the wrong version of the man. Sometimes there was no goodness to find. Kana looked down at the ring resized to fit her little finger. It was untraditional, but they were untraditional. Kakashi had made the decision to leave, and she'd already taken the first step to acceptance in the presence of that ring. She hated herself a little more for taking so long to acknowledge the truth. Obito had less than ten days to decide his future, and it didn't really matter, when it came to Kakashi. Akatsuki would continue on, the snake that could survive without its head. Kakashi would always choose Naruto, and in the end, she would always choose Obito. They all knew it. She was the last person to accept it. Her ring stood for the sky, the image of freedom. She could grant Kakashi that freedom.

"Let's go."

Chapter Text

Kana admired her reflection through the condensation on the mirror, as if she would find herself unrecognizable. Her hair was still dripping from the shower, and her skin was tinged red from the heat of the water. The color on her fair skin made her look more alive, even though she felt like she'd been through hell and back. She grabbed her towel from the hook on the wall and wrapped it around herself, then she collected a spare towel to dry her hair. As she left the bathroom, she left the door ajar, because she planned on returning to finish drying her hair. The fact that Obito was awake and standing on the balcony startled her, because he'd gone to bed over an hour ago, and she was sure he'd been asleep. Caught between ignoring him or acknowledging him, she chose to give him a few more minutes to allow her to step into her panties and throw on a shirt. Things had been tense, because they avoided the obvious. Ten days had passed and neither of them wanted to discuss Obito’s departure from Akatsuki. She didn't want him losing his temper, because she didn't feel like trading physical blows, but he'd given his word. Maybe it was meaningless.

"Hey," she greeted him as she pressed herself against his back and wrapped her arms around him. She turned her head so she could rest her cheek against him. He smelled like amber and orchid. She could almost pretend that they were any other couple trying to enjoy the hot July night. "I thought you were asleep. Nightmare?" He hummed, so she tightened her hold on him and pressed a kiss to his back, her lips warm against his skin.

"I'll leave. I asked you to give me six months. I'll leave the organization. I'll give up on Tsuki no Me."

She'd imagined that they would celebrate his departure, that they would spend hours just making love. But that was before she lost Kakashi for good. She'd imagined a lot of things. Just by his tone, she could tell he wasn't at peace with the decision. For the first time in her life, she asked herself what someone like Rin would do. He'd always sung her praises. Kana liked to think Rin would have been enough of a reason to let his twisted dream go. But she wasn't Rin. She would never be Rin. Eventually, he would grow to resent her, in the way that Kakashi had grown to resent them. Obito would spend the rest of his life regretting his decision, whether he openly blamed her or not. She could hear the unhappiness behind his words, but there was also sincerity. He fully planned on leaving, and it was her turn to celebrate, and it was their turn to fall into bed together. Except she didn't celebrate, and there was no rush to retreat to the sheets. Without Kakashi, she had no reason to put up a fight. At least, that's what she told herself. She would never really have Obito. Whether he stayed with Akatsuki or departed, she would always be second place to something. That had her pulling away.

"You don't want to though. You sound unhappy already." She kept her voice light and focused on towel-drying her hair. She couldn't stand to see his face, but he turned his back to the town and searched for something he couldn't pick up from her tone. "If you leave, you'll grow to resent me. You'll eventually leave me, just like Kakashi left us." Kana gave up on drying her hair and threw the towel on the floor. Obito caught her elbow before she could retreat into their room and she considered slapping him, but she didn't.

"I'm choosing you."

"Is a life with me better than the completion of Tsuki no Me?"

"Yes."

"You're a liar.” She took his hands and led him back into their bedroom. Obito nudged the balcony doors closed with one of his feet, and they clicked shut. He looked tired, as tired as she felt. He wanted her, flaws and all, and she wanted him more than she ever thought possible, but there was no sudden show of love. He didn’t want to leave, and she didn’t want to make him unhappy. She already knew how the night would end. She would give in, because she always gave in to him. "Touch me," she encouraged him, placing his hands over her breasts. He squeezed them through her shirt, then he leaned in to kiss her. With his hands on her body and his taste on her tongue, she didn’t care that he was a filthy liar. He gripped her ass, forcing her against him as their kisses slowed to a stop. “I want you to fuck me until I forget this whole conversation.”

He yanked her panties down before he even thought of her shirt. She lifted her shirt higher on her thighs to taunt him, while backing up to their bed. Instead of taking her shirt off, he watched her remove it herself, then he swatted it aside when she tossed it his way. He didn't know where to touch her first when he wanted to touch her everywhere. As she turned toward the bed, he slapped her ass and she jerked forward. He repeated it and she rubbed her thighs together for friction. The third time he spanked her, she crawled onto the bed and presented her ass for another sound slap that had her heart racing. She glanced over her shoulder at him, but he hadn't removed his boxers. He ran his hands down her outer thighs, then he trailed them up so he could grip her ass again. He'd left red marks on her pale skin. When he brushed his thumb over her slit, she moved back, so he punished her by slapping her ass again.

"Stop being a tease," she complained, glaring at him. He finally removed his boxers, but he chose to trace over her with his index and middle fingers. He paused at her opening, but didn't enter her. "I'll touch myself," she threatened.

At the threat, he pulled his hand back, so she slipped a hand between her thighs and touched herself for him. She rubbed her clit to get herself wet, and he stroked her thighs. Before she could insert a finger, she felt him nudge the tip of his cock against her entrance and push forward just enough to frustrate her. When she moved against him, he tapped his cock against her slit and trailed it up to her clit in one slow motion. He teased her over and over, until she thought she would cum without him even entering her. She moaned when he finally stopped torturing her and eased into her. She thought he would worship her, with the way he touched her breasts and her thighs and her back, but he grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked her head back. She gasped and he pulled all the way out and snapped his hips forward, burying himself in her. He pulled her hair back until her body curved for him, then he fucked her at that angle. She tried to rub her clit but he slapped her hand away. He expected her to cum just with his cock.

It was like he knew she was a praise whore. His breath was hot on her ear as he complimented her and whispered dirty little things he wanted to do to her. And she wanted him to keep fucking her until she had absolutely nothing left to give. His quick, jerky motions had him hitting a spot in her that had her begging him to keep hitting it, to never stop. He had one hand on her hip and she rested a hand against his, tightening his hold until she felt that he would crush her if he held her any tighter. She could have stayed on her knees the entire time and loved every second of it, but he pulled out and his thrusts didn't start again. He rubbed her clit until she almost came, then he stopped. He was edging her and it had her touching herself for him. He watched her sink one finger into herself, then he leaned over her to brush her hair aside and kiss her shoulders and back. She added another finger, but he stopped touching her when she felt her whole body begin to tingle.

"I want you on top of me."

She heard how much he wanted her in his tone, and he punctuated the words by smacking her ass again. When he lay down, she threw one leg over him, lined up his cock, and lowered herself onto him. He was able to pinch her nipples and roll them between his index fingers and thumbs. She couldn't get enough of him, so he grabbed her hips and thrust up to meet her. He filled every inch of her. She grabbed her breasts and squeezed them as he thrust into her. He didn't need to touch her clit to make her cum. Her breathing was rough, her whole body hot, and she clenched her eyes shut just for sensory deprivation. All she felt was his cock thrusting and his fingers digging into her skin. She cried out when she came, and he fucked her through her orgasm. Anything they'd said to one another was a distant memory. The second orgasm was quick and felt even better than the first, so she begged him not to stop. She just needed to feel high again. He came right before she did, but he kept with his shallow thrusts and rubbed her clit to pull the last orgasm from her.

He felt good inside of her, so she lay against him and peppered kisses to his lips and down to his chest. He rubbed circles on her back with his left hand, while she closed her eyes and sighed, spent and content. She didn't think about Kakashi. She didn't think about the way they'd fit together, and all the times he'd smiled just for her. Obito was enough. Which was why she moved off of him and sat beside him on the bed. He was enough. He was unhappy. He would choose her just to keep her, when she'd acknowledged more than once that she had nowhere to go. He was all she had left. And he was preoccupied with the plan he'd had since he was a young teenager. He ran a hand along her thigh while she stared at the far wall and tried to decipher hazy thoughts about her choices. She really only had one option, even though it was difficult to accept. The ring on her finger quietly whispered that she really did have the patience of a saint.

"We're partners," she said, her words met with confusion. She turned toward him and he sat up on his elbows. "That's my compromise. Kakashi isn't here anymore. You're all I have left. I don't want you to be unhappy with me. I'll see this through, as long as you remember we're partners, in this stupid organization and in this stupid plan." He pulled her into his arms and she flailed for a moment before his lips met hers. Something told her she would regret her decision. It was the same part of her that told her someone was missing.

Chapter Text

The candy was sour on her tongue as she rolled it around in her mouth. Beside her, Obito was enjoying kakigori with blueberries and whipped cream. They were ordinary people, just like everyone else gathered to watch the final part of the chunin exams. Orochimaru had already failed to mark Sasuke, thanks to the arrival of two mountain lions. But the attempt on Sasuke wasn't the only card up the man's sleeve. He was sitting directly above them, disguised as the Kazekage. He would likely try to murder Hiruzen, and while she thought that he would succeed, Obito thought the old man still had some fight left. Neither of them cared about Hiruzen, as they both viewed him as weak and feeble-minded. She blamed him for too many things. When Obito offered her a spoon of blueberries and cream, she showed him her piece of candy and he shoved the bite into his own mouth. She was impatient for the showdown between Gaara and Sasuke, but Sasuke was running late. He reminded her too much of Kakashi with his behavior.

She didn't expect to feel Kakashi amongst the gathered crowd, but she'd been tracking him since she and Obito had arrived two days ago. He was standing in the section across from them, so she stared at him from across the floor of the stadium. He was oblivious, with his face buried in his book. Hiruzen had likely welcomed him back with open arms. She could only imagine the information he'd coughed up about Akatsuki. The thought of him betraying them made her blood boil. When the crowd erupted with cheers, she let her eyes fall from Kakashi to the ground, where Sasuke had finally made his appearance. Their aim was to watch Gaara in action. They knew little about him because he killed every shinobi he'd ever faced. And while Itachi and Kisame made their way to capture Naruto, it gave her something to do.

"Fifty ryo that he kills him," Kana bet, sure that Gaara would beat Sasuke. After all, the boy was a jinchuriki and Sasuke was inexperienced. The Suna nin had every advantage. Obito snorted at her bet, but he tapped her thigh to signal that he accepted the bet. "Maybe he can have a joint funeral with Hiruzen." Even over the applause, she heard Obito's quiet laughter.

When Genma called the beginning of the fight, Kana crunched her candy between her teeth and swallowed the tiny pieces. Sasuke was faster than she remembered, and his taijutsu had improved, but speed just wasn't enough. When he sent a lightning hound at Gaara, she scowled, knowing Tenzo had been the one to divulge Kakashi’s move. She searched for Tenzo in the crowd, but she gave up when he wasn’t with the other teachers. The lightning hound broke through Gaara’s sand and injured him, and he lost mind. She heard him scream about his blood, then he began to transform into the one-tailed beast. The next moment, feathers began to fall over the crowd, a sign of a genjutsu meant to neutralize the entire arena. Kana knew Obito had avoided it, just like herself, so she didn’t bother checking on him. They had the choice to follow the rampaging jinchuriki or remain at the stadium. She’d seen enough of Gaara’s quick fight to know about his sand defense and overall control, so she glanced at the cracking foundation on the upper level and jumped down to the ground. Just as she’d thought, Hiruzen was losing to his former student. He was past his prime, and he should have handed the hat off again and retired, while he still had some life left.

As soon as she spotted Kakashi fighting alongside Gai, she felt the familiar burn of her anger. His transition seemed seamless. He went from loyal shinobi to missing shinobi to loyal shinobi in record time. Obito caught her hand before she could march over to the man and punch him in the face. “I only wanted to talk to him,” she lied, knowing Obito saw right through her. He leaned in to whisper the name Botan and she immediately turned away from Kakashi and let it go, because she’d learned from that outcome. “Doesn’t it bother you that he sold your secrets to get his cushy life back? They could know exactly who you are. Why aren’t you as angry as I am?” By that point, they were dodging attacks and stepping over dead bodies to make their way to the exit. He moved her out of the way of a person falling from the first story and she punched a shinobi trying to stab him in the back.

“Because, in the end, who I am doesn’t matter. He has a basic framework and none of the details. Maybe he should have stayed a little longer before betraying me.” Obito finished off his kakigori and tossed the empty cup over his shoulder, then they headed into the tunnel leading out of the stadium. She had underestimated the sheer planning involved, because the streets were overrun. “The sad part about all of this is the effort Orochimaru put into this. He could do so much more with his life. He would rather live in bunkers and play mad scientist,” Obito frowned, dropping his henge to reveal his Akatsuki outfit and his Madara mask. In response, she snapped the connection between her disguise and her network, ending her own henge.

“They’re sending genin after the rampaging jinchuriki. Oh, no, he’s transformed completely. This village is insane. How did we ever survive?”

“I didn’t.”

“To be fair, you really did.”

They both felt when Hiruzen died, then when the invasion finally came to an end. The massive chakra outside of the village faded, until she only felt the kids and their chakra. Somehow, they’d all survived, which made her think of the shinobi they would become. Kakashi had always told her that it was destiny for the next generation to surpass the previous generation. She wanted to be living proof that it was a bunch of shit. With Hiruzen gone, someone would have to take up the position as Hokage, and Danzo wasn’t an option. It made her wonder if a replacement would be found before Akatsuki made its next move. Itachi and Kisame were two days outside of Konoha. It was only a matter of time before they ripped Naruto from his life there. The rookies had no idea that they were going to grow up in a tumultuous time that reminded her too much of the years preceding the third war.

“If they don’t succeed, the village is going to keep Naruto on the move,” Kana said, saying the same thoughts he’d had for the past several days. If Itachi and Kisame failed, for whatever reason, pinning Naruto down again could prove problematic. Obito hummed, because he already knew the importance of the mission. He’d been the one to confer with Pein and decide it was time. “I don’t understand why you wouldn’t reconsider and let us take the mission.”

“Because this mission is a test. Itachi is getting worse. I need to know if I need to replace him or not.” He looked over at her as if she were going to protest. She’d already known about Itachi’s illness, and the fact that it was incurable. To distract herself, she picked at her nails. “So you knew. Of course you did.” He prodded her ticklish spot and she shoved him away from her. She’d meant to tell him, but her decision came down to Itachi’s usefulness. Itachi would be useful right to the grave. Obito shook his head at her and she huffed. “He can’t see without his sharingan, and even then, it’s not good,” Obito admitted, the frown evident in his voice. She hadn’t known. She hadn’t been with Itachi. “I think he wants to use Sasuke to kill himself.”

“Well that’s fucking morbid, but fitting for someone from the Uchiha clan.”

“Isn’t it?”

“Can I tempt you into an evening in Tanzaku-gai?” She eyed him, trying to judge his expression when she couldn’t see his face. She could tell he wasn’t angry with her, because his chakra signature was calm. He was quiet for so long that she considered asking the question a second time. “We had a good time there,” she continued, trying to encourage him to accept her proposal. Referencing their time with Kakashi was a low blow, but it didn’t bother Obito at all. Obito pretended that their time with Kakashi never happened. “Fine. I want to spy on what’s happening in Konoha.” When Obito still didn’t respond, she clicked her tongue and turned her head away.

“Once they have Naruto, we’re leaving.”

“This is why we get along so well."

"Because I'm the only one crazy enough to put up with you."

"Yes."

Chapter Text

As Obito read yesterday's newspaper, she sat in the middle of the floor and painted her nails a deep shade of green that seemed brighter under the overhead light. After the first coat dried, she stretched her legs out and admired her painted nails and toenails. In the end, the polish would chip off, as it always did. Obito peered over top of the newspaper at her, so she crooked a finger at him. He snapped the paper closed and left it at the low table, but he never reached her. They both felt the same mistake taking place in Konoha. Naruto and Jiraiya were on the move, before Itachi and Kisame had reached Konoha. They were going to miss one another. Kana went to collect her belongings before Obito had a chance to say something. Itachi and Kisame were behind, which meant that she could intercept and take the mission she wanted. Before she could rush to throw her cloak on, Obito grabbed her arm. He didn't want her on the mission. How many times had he tried to explain the course of events? How many times had she dismissed each telling? She refused to drop her cloak and he refused to release her arm.

"You can't stop me from fighting Jiraiya. He's not a part of this mission. If we happen to accidentally stumble upon a lonely boy with no adult supervision," she began, trying to convince him once more. He yanked her cloak out of her hands and pointed to the bed, but she crossed her arms over her chest. "Fine. Let me neutralize Jiraiya and you can play babysitter until Itachi and Kisame show up," she tried to negotiate. She didn't expect to have her words interrupted by the introduction of Orochimaru’s chakra. He'd dragged himself from Konoha to Tanzaku-gai. "Why are they coming here?"

"Get dressed. We're going to find out." Obito threw her cloak at her and it smacked her in the face. She glared at him as she collected the item from the floor. "I don't feel like fighting Orochimaru again, but there's something wrong with his chakra network. Do you feel that?" Kana pulled her romper up as she focused on the slow roll of the man's chakra. He sealed her pajamas away as she tried to decipher the oddity.

"It's hard to describe. It reminds me of the seal from the night of the kyuubi attack. Definitely Uzumaki. Hm. I felt this in Konoha but I didn't know it was attached to Orochimaru. He's crippled. He has no use of his arms." She frowned into the distance, trying to imagine a shinobi without the use of his arms. His network felt as if his arms had been cut off entirely. She had to assume the arms still existed, because of the delineation between the network in the arms and the network in the rest of his body. The cut was precise; she would argue that it was too precise to be man-made.

"Hiruzen sealed his arms. Weak fool. He summoned the shinigami and gave up his soul to seal the man's arms. Looks like you were right, Kana. He had nothing left," Obito shrugged, putting his Tobi mask on. She zipped up her cloak and flicked his mask. She thought that summoning the shinigami was something to celebrate, but not for something so trivial. Hiruzen had been unable to take Orochimaru’s soul. "Don't tell me you think he's redeemed himself."

"I think he sentenced himself to an eternity in its stomach for nothing. Orochimaru is cunning. If anyone can figure out a way around this seal, it's him. Personally? I hope he rots away. That seems to be the progress right now." He tossed her the wakizashi by her bedside and she caught it and put it on. When she was finished getting ready, they left the hotel room and went into the afternoon heat. He pinched her ass and she turned to slap him, but he disappeared into the crowd, where he acted like a complete fool. She'd missed Tobi.

Even though he narrowly avoided running into people, he was leading her in the direction of Orochimaru. The man wasn't alone, but that wasn't a surprise, considering his state. Still, that didn't mean he was defenseless. The familiar pattern was the man's constant stops at casinos and bars. He didn't need to be drinking or gambling, though she wouldn't have blamed him for drinking his sorrows away. He was looking for someone or something, and he was running out of gambling spots and bars. Tobi nearly barreled right into a buxom blonde, his hands up as if to stop himself. When his palms touched the woman's breasts, the woman punched him, and sent him flying down the street. The woman was short, but she had the confidence of someone twice her size. Kana had never met the slug princess before, but after hearing tales about her, she found the descriptions matched perfectly. She wasn't upset that the woman had punched her fiancé, because she knew he could have avoided groping the woman, who was twice his age. He deserved to go flying.

"Do you want to try me too?" The woman cracked her knuckles and Kana motioned to herself, because she wasn't going to back down from a pissing contest when challenged. "You're dressed just like that clown," Tsunade frowned, eyeing her Akatsuki cloak. Kana liked to imagine she looked much better in her cloak. The red and black worked well with her features. "Well?"

"Look, grandma, calm down. You punched him three miles away. We're fucking done here. Maybe if you watched where you parked your tits, he wouldn't have groped you." Kana shrugged her shoulders and she swore she saw the flames ignite at the woman's back. She heard a woman calling for Tsunade, then they were joined by a dark-haired woman carrying a pig. Kana stared at the pig, then at Tsunade. "Fitting."

"Uh, Tsunade-sama, please! Not again," the woman pleaded, only succeeding in getting a bottle of sake shoved in her direction.

Tsunade marched towards Kana and Kana met her halfway. To make a point, Kana looked down on her. Vaguely, she recognized the name Shizune, but she brushed the thought aside. Tobi returned before they resorted to blows, but his appearance didn't stop Kana from slapping Tsunade, and it did nothing to stop Tsunade from kicking Kana through the front window of a bookstore. Kana stepped out of the remains of the window, shook the glass shards from her hair, smoothed out her cloak, and went to continue the fight. Tsunade was a brawler, and Kana could appreciate that energy, but it was easy to rile someone up and watch them get sloppy. She knew firsthand. Tsunade punched the ground and a large crater was left in the street, so Kana slapped her again and dodged the next strike that sent a cart flying. A sober Tsunade might have been even better to fight. When Orochimaru joined the crowds of people horrified at the display, she finally understood the bigger picture. He thought Tsunade could reverse the seal.

Tsunade saw Orochimaru in the crowd and stopped, right in the middle of a swing, to turn on her heel and walk in the opposite direction. Shizune hurried after her, leaving Kana, Obito, Orochimaru, and a weirdo with giant glasses. Tobi rubbed the back of his head and muttered an apology she knew he didn't mean. Orochimaru frowned at them, recalling the fight he'd had with them, and then questioned Tobi’s behavior. He couldn't tell if it was the same person, and he was wise enough to let it go.

"Nice arms," Kana greeted, her eyes closed for a fake, cheery smile. It was one thing she'd learned from Kakashi, how to piss someone off with one expression. Orochimaru smiled at her in return, while his little bodyguard prepared to approach her in the man's defense.

"So you're still alive. Is that really how you want to speak to me, Kana?" He had the nerve to use a disappointed tone with her, as if he meant to make her feel guilty for being rude to him. She nodded and he turned to watch Tsunade turn the corner. "We'll continue this another time," he quickly said, already walking away. Without a doubt, he would remember the way she treated him and come up with some manner of revenge.

"You," Kana said, grabbing Tobi before he could follow Orochimaru. "If you ever touch another woman that way again, I'm going to fry every nerve in your body. I don't give a fuck who you think you are. Got it?" She released her hold on his cloak and he stumbled forward a few steps. She knew he was amused, and that made her want to continue her fight with Tsunade.

"Tobi is always a good boy, Kana-chan!"

"You're lying, Tobi."

Kana led the way after the two sannin, still confused about why there was going to be a reunion in some place like Tanzaku-gai. Tsunade and Orochimaru made sense, but not Jiraiya, and definitely not Naruto. Kana pressed her lips together as she tried to imagine a sannin reunion. They hadn't occupied the same space since the second war. She could only assume that Jiraiya sought out Tsunade. It could turn out to be another lecherous vacation for him, with Naruto as a witness to his perversion. By the time she caught up with Tsunade, Orochimaru was gone. Judging by the fact that the woman looked devastated, Orochimaru had said exactly what he wanted to say to manipulate her into solving a problem she couldn't possibly solve. There was no easy way to free someone from the shinigami's stomach, and that counted for his arms. She almost felt sorry for Tsunade. Sighing, she ripped the sake bottle from Shizune and handed it to Tsunade, who promptly downed the whole thing.

"I don't know what he said to you, but he's a lying, manipulative bastard, who can't accept that his arms and his future are rotting away."

"Don't think I don't know what those cloaks stand for."

"We aren't here for you, or that trash heap ex-teammate of yours. We're waiting for a client."

Tsunade looked her in the eyes, then scanned the street for the nearest bar. As soon as Tsunade stepped under the cover, the rain started, so Kana gave up on the woman and headed back to the hotel to wait for Jiraiya's arrival. At their hotel, Kana found her anger again and glared daggers at Obito, while he pretended to read the same articles he'd read earlier. When she got tired of him ignoring her, she snatched the newspaper from his hands, set it on fire, and dumped the burning paper in the trash. He looked from the fire to her, then she heard him sigh.

"Did you have to touch her breasts?"

"They were real."

"Mine are real!"

"It's just harmless curiosity," he said, shrugging his shoulders. She pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to justify not starting an argument with him. "I heard they were fake. She was flat-chested as a kid. I took the punch for it," he frowned, rubbing his sore stomach. She didn't care if he took eighty punches for it, and she voiced her thoughts with a growl. "You're blowing this out of proportion."

"So I can just grope a man and you'd be fine with it because it's harmless curiosity?" He was quiet, so she knew she was getting her point through his thick skull. To be sure, she stood over him at the table and knocked her knuckles against his head. "The first time you saw me half-naked, you made a dick remark about my breasts being small. I fucking remember that!"

"That's what this is about? It doesn't bother me. I was rude because I was embarrassed I walked in on you."

"You were embarrassed?"

"I thought you'd think I wanted something more from you because I saw you," he said, shrugging. She slowly sat down across from him at the table. "I liked what I saw." It was an inappropriate time to kiss him, so she remained seated and focused on the way he shifted on his zabuton. "I didn't expect you to make a move on me. I was worse off then. I probably made you feel cheap by saying Rin's name when we were having sex."

"Yeah, you did. That hurt a lot more than it should have. I was half asleep and I thought I was in my bed, in Konoha."

"With Kakashi."

"Yeah. But when I realized it was you, I still made a move. Sex can be comforting. It can be a lot of things."

"You wanted comfort from me? I kidnapped you." She didn't appreciate his incredulous tone, but she understood his disbelief. She'd sought comfort and love with her captor, something kunoichi were warned about during their genin days. It was all about manipulation and the human mind. "The second time was better," he added, after a few awkward minutes. She agreed, so she nodded. They had another hour before Jiraiya arrived and neither of them knew what to say.

"You remembered I like hot tea or cocoa. It was something small and stupid, but you listened and you remembered," she finally admitted, deciding to be open. Her anger about Tsunade was long gone. He tipped his head to the side, as if he didn't recall the memory. "In Snow."

"That mattered to you?" He genuinely sounded surprised. On the other side of the room, their trash can fire had died out, leaving the smell of burnt newspaper and the forgotten remnants of her anger. "We had a lot of fun in Snow. I didn't mean to give you a concussion."

"Yes you did," she replied, rolling her eyes. She imagined that he looked apologetic, but the memory of their fight was best left buried. "In Lightning, you warned me that you had nothing to offer me," she quietly spoke, "when I wanted everything. I wanted you then. I was falling in love with you." It was freeing to admit it. Saying the words gave new light to that crushing memory. He finally knew how she'd felt when she'd woken up alone.

"I was hoping I could stop it, but I can never really get enough of you."

"You're flirting with me."

"I am. I'm also going to remind you that we're waiting on Jiraiya." Her expression fell. She tried to calculate Jiraiya's time of arrival by judging his distance and his speed, but she couldn't get a response that satisfied her, so she gave up. There wasn't enough time. "Kana?" She refocused on him, thinking he would give in and let her enjoy being with him a little more. "I enjoy the scent of gardenia."

He recalled each one of their gardenia memories.

Chapter Text

She chose to forgo the Akatsuki cloak, and he took an appreciative look down at her lap, where he could see her romper riding up on her thighs. At three drinks in, he still refused to speak to her. For a change, he couldn't charm loose women to hang from him like adornments. Being chased by a large mob of angry women had colored his future in the town. He'd given up, which told her he wasn't in the town for pleasure, which meant they were both very aware of why they were seated beside one another at the izakaya. She crossed one leg over the other and he glanced at her thighs again. To force his hand, she bought his fourth drink and he set his cup down a little too hard, rattling the empty cups that had collected between them. Both of them hadn't had enough alcohol to impact their fighting, but that could change, depending on her decision to poison him or not. He stretched his arms, then draped one over the back of her chair, as if he planned on getting somewhere, so she angled towards him and took another sip of her mixed drink.

"Looking lovely, Kana." His arm moved from the back of her chair to her shoulders and his hand lightly massaged her shoulder, sliding up and down in a slow fashion. He thought she wanted to kill him, which had her rolling her eyes. She was the distraction, not his assassin. She rested her right hand on his left thigh and he looked at her in shock. Just because she didn't like honeypot missions didn't mean she didn't know how to work one. "I knew you weren't immune to my charms," he grinned, hand dangerously close to groping her breast. They looked interested in one another, and with his boisterous tone, everyone within a block radius knew it. "Were you thinking of a late night dip?"

"I thought we could share a few drinks and I could enjoy your company," she shrugged, shoving her empty cup away. He ordered her another drink and she saw the quick moment when he dosed her. He'd groped her breast, hoping it would distract her and enrage her, but she pretended she enjoyed it and leaned into him. Over the next several minutes, she gave her drink to her neighbor, and enjoyed the moment when he realized his plan had failed. He didn't pull away from her, though his gaze had hardened.

"You aren't here alone."

"No, I'm not."

"You're after the kid this soon? Kakashi didn't think you were ready."

"So he did sing like a little canary. Yes, two Akatsuki members are approaching your hotel right now. We're ready to take him. But I thought you'd like to talk about your visit with the slug princess."

"She's the next Hokage. There isn't much to tell. Naruto has a way of reaching people," Jiraiya replied, staring down at his cup. She wondered if she'd caught him thinking of Minato. He'd never mentioned his apprentice. Jiraiya wore loss well, layered so thick in it that it just belonged there, like she wouldn't recognize him without it. Maybe she should have said something to comfort him, but she didn't. "You realize I'm not going to make this easy on you. I can't let you take him."

"Now you sound like Kakashi. That kid cramps your style. Break this genjutsu and come find us." She kissed his cheek and he broke free of the genjutsu she'd placed on him after he'd groped her. When they met again, she greeted him outside of his hotel room, where Itachi was choking Sasuke with one hand. "You're getting slow, old man," she smirked, watching the quick way he took in his surroundings. He was a great shinobi, underneath his stupid, lecherous act. He was the last to arrive at the party, until Tobi flew through the middle of the action and collided with Kisame. That introduced Tsunade. "You had one fucking job!"

"I really tried, Kana-chan!" Kisame lifted Tobi by the back of his cloak and set him on his feet again.

Kana jumped from the second floor railing to the ground and collected Sasuke from the ground, where he'd fallen after being choked. "You should have minded your own business and stayed home, weakling," Kana frowned. He tried to punch her, so she broke his left arm, then threw him across the street, where he landed in a heap at Jiraiya's feet. "Go break down the door!"

Kisame proceeded to knock on the hotel room door and Naruto opened it and poked his head out. When he saw the chaos outside the door, he closed it in Kisame's face. The door burst open seconds later as Naruto drove a rasengan right through the wood and nearly impaled Kisame. Sasuke found an opening, and he and Naruto began working together against Kisame, with Tobi running over to act like an idiot in the midst of the fight. Kana joined Itachi and they faced off against the two sannin. She wanted to fight Jiraiya, but her sharingan was better against Tsunade. The world's greatest medic nin had too much control over her yin chakra for Kana to let her fight Itachi. She thought that separating the sannin would be difficult, but she'd underestimated just how in unison the two could fight. They both summoned their animals at the same time, the large toad and slug destroying the surrounding buildings.

Kana summoned her susanoo first, the pink chakra construct rising from a rib cage into its humanoid form, and finally into its complete form. Her susanoo had pink wings with feathers made of burning flames, and it had a sheathed sword on its back with two war fans in its hands. She glanced to her right to check on Itachi and watched his susanoo build from its skeleton form into its complete form. His susanoo was more powerful than her own, easily the most powerful in clan history, so it was exciting to witness. Katsuyu attacked with acid that Kana's susanoo sent back at it with a swing of a fan. The acid tried to deconstruct the fan, but it wasn't an ordinary fan. It was reinforced, like the armor on her susanoo. While Tsunade could work with her summon, Kana was limited to fighting both summon and summoner with her susanoo. Fire and acid was exchanged, until they'd destroyed three rows of buildings. Over the sound of their fighting, Kana heard the screams of the civilians on the streets.

They fought until Jiraiya was forced to recall an injured Gamabunta. Seconds later, Tsunade had to recall Katsuyu because Kana had split the slug into thirds. With no need for their susanoos, Kana and Itachi let them gradually fade. Kana's susanoo burst into pink feathers that disintegrated in the air. Tobi had Naruto by the back of his orange jacket, but Tsunade threw part of a building at Tobi that had him throwing Naruto at Itachi and running away. Naruto tried to hit Itachi with a rasengan, but Itachi used his sharingan on the boy and knocked him out. Jiraiya stopped their quick escape by trapping them in a toad, where the tissue composing the walls and floor tried to suck them in. With only Itachi with her, Kana realized their chances for success had slimmed.

"I can summon my susanoo and cut us out of here," she offered, knowing Jiraiya could hear her plotting. Itachi dropped Naruto onto the floor and the impact roused him, which threw him into a panic. The kid started flailing and yelling.

"Sasuke!"

"Stop moving, Naruto! He's fine."

She didn't know why Jiraiya chose to lie to the boy instead of telling him that moving around would get him absorbed too. Kana prepared to summon her susanoo again, but Itachi placed a hand on her shoulder. The length of the fight and his declining health meant that extending the fight longer would put him at risk. She would be on her own. Kana knew the reason for Naruto's swift collection. Obito wanted to send a clear message that the world still chose to ignore: His time had come. Frowning, Kana chose to put her foot onto Naruto's back and flatten him to the floor.

"I know you're going to run, toad sage. I want you to know that I'll always know exactly where you are, and we will be coming for you again."

Behind her, Itachi burnt a gaping hole through the tissue, making them an exit. She knew if she took Naruto, that the tissue would make it impossible for her to leave with him. Kana lifted her foot from Naruto's back and followed Itachi out of the toad, where they found Sasuke kneeling over a downed Tsunade and Kisame and Tobi waiting for them. Itachi returned to Kisame, while Tobi ran to Kana's side. She saw him eyeing the black flames, knowing that they'd been forced to retreat. She caught his gaze, silently offering to finish the mission on her own, but he jumped on her and cried that she'd returned to them. He'd accepted the results of their failed attempt. The focus would shift from Naruto to the remaining jinchuriki.

Chapter Text

"I didn't expect Kakashi to take Sasuke as an apprentice."

"That piece of shit is just full of surprises."

"I could use him."

Kana looked up from her sudoku, the eraser of her pencil caught against her lower lip. He sat beside her on the park bench, in a secluded section of the southern botanical garden. She waited for him to continue, so when he didn't, she lowered her pencil and glanced in his direction. He looked peaceful, especially with the delicate butterfly perched on his right shoulder. He knew he had her attention, and he still chose to let her stew in silence. When she turned her attention back to her puzzle, he grabbed the end of the pencil and prevented her from filling in another square. He knew exactly how she felt about Sasuke. She felt that the boy was a sum of wasted potential, that he was being held back by Konoha. She really should have let Orochimaru lure the boy away, even with her negative opinion of the sannin. Obito saw something useful, and she couldn't argue with him. She just couldn't imagine Sasuke wanting anything to do with Akatsuki or betraying his weird, unhealthy relationship with Naruto. She let him take the pencil and tuck it behind her right ear.

"Two weeks ago, you saw Itachi summon a fully formed susanoo. You saw what he's capable of. He's still useful. You can't have them both," she frowned, closing the newspaper to conceal her half-finished puzzle. He shrugged his shoulders and the butterfly flew away. "You want Sasuke to succeed in killing Itachi." He turned his head to catch her eye, his sharingan burning against her onyx eyes. In the end, he won the staring contest. She didn't know how she felt about Itachi's impending death. Having killed her own brother, she knew it provided no type of release. Revenge felt good until it didn't. "It's going to take years," she continued, stressing the length of time for the boy to develop. She wetted her lips. "You were watching him in the fight against Gaara, weren't you?"

"Itachi was still reporting to Konoha, up until Hiruzen's death, and the amount of medicine needed to sustain him is growing. I give him two years, and that's being generous," Obito admitted, purposely avoiding her accusations. She leaned back against the bench, where his left arm was stretched out along the back, and stared at the people in the distance. It was the first time in a long time that they were openly discussing Itachi's betrayal. "Since Danzo and Hiruzen are dead, I'm interested to see if he'll reach out to Tsunade. He's stranded. His purpose is gone and his life is fading. Sasuke is young and inexperienced, but Kakashi has a lot to teach him. Kakashi can do all of the work and we can reap the rewards. Sasuke can betray Kakashi, kill Itachi, and turn on the village for deceiving him."

"He cares too much about Naruto. He'll back out. He's too soft."

"I think you underestimate just how much trauma has shaped him. He'd easily turn his back on Naruto."

"Fine. If you really think this gamble will pay off, then I support you. When it blows up in your face, and we've lost Itachi and Sasuke, I'll clean up your mess and you can admit that you were wrong."

"Be quiet and think about how devastating that would be for Kakashi. His only student takes what he's taught him and abandons the village," Obito said, making a hand motion as if he were unveiling the whole story for her eyes. The thought of hurting Kakashi was appealing. Tsunade had brought the man out of his coma. He was a target again. "Now you're just thinking about punishing Kakashi for betraying us," Obito snorted, flicking her right temple. She swatted at his hand and missed.

"Abandonment and betrayal."

"Yes, we both know you don't handle abandonment well."

"Fuck off."

She grabbed her newspaper and reopened it to her puzzle, then she snagged the pencil from behind her ear. She finished two squares on the large grid before he leaned over and pointed out a mistake that would force her to start all over again. Annoyed, she slapped the newspaper against his chest and shoved the pencil in his direction, so he adopted her pastime. Their target was still admiring the colorful summer blossoms, his wife and two children just as absorbed with the variety of flowers, shrubs, and trees. The botanical garden was beautiful, a picturesque place that was perfect for an outing. Kana had spent the whole time with her face in her newspaper, so it was the first time she could appreciate her surroundings. A bee hovered near her gloved left hand, its body covered in pollen. When it found that she had nothing for it, it moved on.

The heat of the summer afternoon was unwelcome, but Kana still tipped her head back and looked up at the clouds scattered across the sky. Southern Fire knew all about heat, and the dog days of summer promised much of it. Obito had offered to toss her into the lake, which seemed like a great idea, after baking in the sun for forty-five minutes. When their target noticed them, she nudged her elbow into Obito’s side and he waved to the man, as if they were old friends. The man excused himself from his wife and children and approached them. The Suna councilman was among the full council members meeting with the Konoha elders. He was young, extremely loyal, and against the ascension of Gaara to the position of Kazekage, a topic which came up in a meeting three days after the mess in Tanzaku-gai. His layers and the bangs over his right eye meant that she really only saw a portion of his face and his left eye.

"Now isn't a good time," Yura frowned, attention focused solely on Obito. Obito was playing the role of Madara, which was uninteresting, so Kana toyed with the Akatsuki ring on her pinky. "The chunin exams will be announced in two months. They'll take place in March in Sunagakure." He shared the good news with them, then looked back at his family. He cared too much about his little sandcastle, which made it amusing to know he was a sleeper agent. He thought he was simply getting rid of Gaara. He would be dividing and crippling his village.

"Maybe you shouldn't ignore my messages, and I wouldn't show up to your family vacation to threaten you," Obito said, shrugging. Yura didn't appreciate the nonchalant way Obito said the words, but they all knew Yura was at a disadvantage. "Make sure he and the girl are present and we'll do our part." Kana turned to Obito, because she'd never heard talk about a girl being involved. The whole point of the exams was to lock down Gaara. Their focus was the one-tailed beast. "And the money?"

"We have the funding. You will receive the second half directly following the chunin exams," Yura promised, bowing his head. The man's wife called his name, so Obito waved him off. Yura looked at her before he left, so she activated her sharingan and felt for the connection to Sasori. When she verified that he was still one of the man's agents, she let her sharingan fade and feigned a yawn. Yura didn't recall a thing.

Kana thought that they would retreat to kamui, maybe start the journey to Amegakure, but Obito didn't move, so she remained seated. Obito was watching Yura rejoin his wife and two children; as soon as the family left the area, Obito turned to look at her. She turned toward him on the bench and crossed one leg over the other to show him that she was prepared to wait for him to choke up the explanation she wanted.

"Fu of Takigakure will be participating in the next chunin exams. She's the jinchuriki of the seven tails. She won't be making it home." Kana frowned, trying to understand why he didn't tell her in the first place, unless it was a last-minute addition. He poked her forehead and she grabbed his finger, though she didn't squeeze it. "I plan on killing two birds with one stone. Sasori and Deidara will take Gaara during the exams, and Kakuzu and Hidan will take Fu as she's returning to Takigakure. I can use the containment seal from Yumegakure to hold one of them."

"Fu is a new addition."

"She is. Her situation is a little different."

"Let's go. Out with it."

"Her village is paying us to take her and kill her. They want it to look like an ambush."

She didn't know what to say. She didn't know Fu, but the fact that Takigakure would pay someone to kidnap her and kill her was terrible. Kana stared at him, waiting for him to say that he was joking, that the girl's village really didn't think that she was disposable, but he didn't. Maybe death was the best thing Akatsuki could offer her. Maybe they were truly saving the unwanted. If it weren't for Killer B, she could have believed it, but B was different. In his village, he was someone. Obito nudged one of her legs and got to his feet, the signal that they'd accomplished their small mission. Kana still looked for Yura and his family, as if they would reappear amongst the last blooms of summer. She wondered if his wife was prepared to be a single mother.

"I need to meet with Pein and we need to track down Kimimaro. It's time to collect Jugo."

Chapter Text

“They call him Jugo of the Scales. He can be extremely unpredictable and bloodthirsty. Can you feel him?”

“There’s a constant fluctuation in nature chakra.”

“That’s him. He’s capable of sage transformation. The constant influx of nature chakra is what sends him into uncontrollable rages.”

They stood on the rocky ground and admired the northern hideout, which was built into a cliffside. Even after Obito’s explanation, she had trouble identifying Jugo as a person, due to the nature chakra clinging to him. She couldn’t judge his abilities with nature transformations over the constant intake of nature chakra. If he were in a forest, she would have missed him entirely. As it was, nature chakra was lacking in the rocky climate. He was an oddity. Kimimaro had insisted on accompanying them to claim his friend as his new partner in the organization; she could tell by his deep frown that he didn’t appreciate Obito’s introduction of his friend. Kana had never heard of the nickname before. She’d once heard of a clan specializing in the use of sage transformation, but that had been a long time ago. They’d been wiped up in the third war. Jugo must have been a remainder, just like Kimimaro was a remainder. Their friendship made more sense. Though Kana and Obito accompanied Kimimaro, the teenager led the mission. They were there for support, and nothing more. Originally, Kana had objected to Kimimaro’s presence, but Obito had reminded her that Orochimaru wasn’t at the hideout, just his goons. It was a relatively safe mission, with a quick entrance and a quick exit. No one believed that Jugo would object to the rescue. They didn’t know he’d gone to Orochimaru willingly.

“There’s someone else I’d like to visit while we’re here, Kana. His name is Kabuto. I believe he’s been compromised. If he has, we’ll have to get rid of him,” Obito said, already approaching the long stairs built into the cliffside. Kimimaro followed his lead, while Kana hesitated. The last she recalled, Kabuto had been loyal to Konoha. Thinking back on the invasion, she recalled seeing him fighting for Orochimaru. If he was a spy for Akatsuki, he hadn’t acted like one. Obito motioned for her to ascend the stairs before him, so she did. The climb was dizzying. “If he fails, he’ll be killed,” Obito quietly informed her, as if she hadn’t known.

“He’s confident he can handle Jugo, so I believe him. If he can’t, and he gets killed, it’s his own fault. Isn’t it, Kimimaro?” She thought that addressing Kimimaro would make it obvious that the teen was listening in on the conversation. In the lead, Kimimaro looked back at her and nodded, accepting his fate. His odd illness was affecting him. No one could diagnose him, so no one knew a cure. She wondered if she could find something to help him in one of Orochimaru’s labs, but she acknowledged that it was a longshot. “I’m guessing you want to split up,” Kana frowned, not bothering to look in Obito’s direction. While Kimimaro was distracted, Obito pinched her ass.

“We can handle ourselves, can’t we?” She mumbled a few incoherent words and Obito pinched her ass again. She considered shoving him off the steep steps, but she knew he would survive. As Madara, he deserved it for parading as a prick. He’d picked up too much from the dead man. When they reached the entrance to the hideout, the way was clear, as if knowledge of the owner of the hideout was enough to deter outsiders. “If something happens, flare your chakra, Kana. If something happens to you, Kimimaro, you’re on your own. Good luck.” Kana shot Obito a dirty look, but they entered the hideout and separated. She flipped him off when she thought he wasn’t looking, but he flipped her off before he rounded a corner.

The northern hideout was a dark, dreary place with a lot of unused space. For the size of the hideout, the number of people inhabiting it was low, though calling them inhabitants rather than prisoners was a mistake on her part. Orochimaru kidnapped and experimented on children. She didn’t know of a single person who chose to go with him. He struck her as a child molestor, but she would rather die than accuse the man, because it wasn’t something people talked about. The first person she encountered was a lab assistant. He dropped the tray of specimens he was carrying and the glass vials broke on the concrete floor. He had nothing to do with her mission, and he was unarmed, but she considered him worthless for working with Orochimaru. Killing him was too easy. She stabbed him in the gut and slit his throat. He died choking on his own blood. She didn’t know if Obito meant for them to clear the lab, but she intended to kill anyone she came across. It worked well for her, until she reached a large room with floor-to-ceiling tanks. The tanks contained a variety of experiments, where people had been transformed into partial wild animals. She approached one of the tanks, which had a human and fish hybrid, the only one in the room. The label on it had the word kaima. Ocean demon. When the creature’s eyes snapped open, it struggled in the tank, trying to break through the reinforced glass. The commotion caused by its struggle set off an alarm that drew one person to the room.

The man’s circular glasses were too large for him, and his chakra screamed of deception. He reminded Kana too much of Orochimaru, with the way he bypassed the horrific results of his experimentations. She didn’t try to hide from him, and he seemed indifferent to her presence. Instead of attacking him, she watched him turn off the light in the glass cylinder and cast the person into darkness. The next thing she knew, purple liquid was seeping into the tank from the bottom. The creature slowly began to calm, until its eyes closed again and it was still. The man adjusted his glasses on his nose and turned to face her, as if he came across intruders on a daily basis. Unlike the scientists she’d come across, the man before her was a trained shinobi, and a well-trained one at that. His eyes flickered from her face to her wakizashi, then back to her face again. Maybe she should have known him, but she didn’t.

“Now what could you be looking for, Kana?” He smiled at her and she took a step back, the expression itself unnerving. His smile said one thing, but his chakra said another. He was extremely talented with the art of deception, which immediately had her marking him as a spy. She wondered if she’d stumbled across Kabuto. Instead of asking, she caught him with her sharingan and felt for Sasori’s presence, but she couldn’t find it. He’d gone rogue. “I didn’t expect that,” he shared, once she’d deactivated her dojutsu. He threw three senbon at her that she dodged and they cut right through the empty portion of her right sleeve. She could smell the poison coating them. “By now, you know that I’m no longer loyal to Akatsuki.”

“I doubt you’re loyal to anyone, except for yourself. Once a spy, always a spy. Isn’t that right, Kabuto?”

She drew her wakizashi in quick draw style and deflected the next senbon he sent. He used the attack as a distraction, while he drew closer. He used a chakra scalpel to try and sever her arm, so she kneed him in the gut and cut his ponytail off as he dodged her strike. He frowned as he watched his hair fall to the floor. His taijutsu was decent, but it was his speed that gave him the edge. He was fast, and dodging without her sharingan was a pain. He tried to capture her in a genjutsu, but she broke free before he had the chance to land his killing blow. To prove a point to him, she captured him in a genjutsu and began filling his mind with his most painful memories. He slapped a palm to his head, then he cradled his head, and then he broke free. His narrowed eyes told her that he’d finally joined the fight. He didn’t try genjutsu on her again.

His stamina was average, but his skills with ninjutsu proved much better. He was quick with hand seals, but she was quicker. The water release technique he used was impressive, given the lack of water source, but it wasn’t a surprise. He excelled with water release. She countered his water dragon bullet with a wind release, breakthrough, but the impact of the water and the wind broke through the rear wall. A crack formed in the ceiling and stretched the length of the room. The hand seals for the next attack made her think he was insane. Using water release wasn’t the problem. He planned on using the great waterfall technique, which could bring the whole room down on top of them. She lashed out with wind release again, the great breakthrough technique sending the waterfall back to Kabuto. The water wiped out the entire wall and part of the exit collapsed, trapping them in the room. The thought of being crushed to death reminded her of her teammates being murdered by Iwagakure shinobi. The next attack was a water trumpet, but she sent a flame tiger into the attack and the strength of her flames overcame the attack. She used the attack for cover and engaged him in taijutsu.

She managed to stab him with a kunai, but the wound healed in front of her eyes. He countered by striking her wrist and she lost her grip on her kunai. When he tried to hit her again, she jumped back, cradling her right wrist. He’d severed muscles, ligaments, and tendons, so her dominant hand was useless. He tried to strike her again, but she punched him with her left hand and broke his glasses. The glass should have cut his eyes, but he healed himself. She would have to drain him of chakra to win the battle, or use her eternal mangekyou to kill him, which was more appealing by the second. Except when she tried to kill him, he was prepared, as if he were reinforcing his body from her blows. He healed her damage instantaneously. The fighting roused the experiments in the tanks, causing them all to try and break free. In a last-ditch effort to end the fight, she began to target the tanks. She coated her fist in rock and punched through one of the tanks. The creature didn’t need her guidance, because it went right for Kabuto on its own. The kaima was the last creature to free, and when she freed it, it joined the fray.

She heard someone calling her name from the blocked exit, so she ran around the large-scale fight to reach the collection of rocks blocking the door. There were too many, and they were too heavy, so she would have to wait for Obito to get her out of the mess, and he hated anything to do with collapses. She dodged a water attack that hit the pile of rocks and sent more rocks raining down on the area. One half of the ceiling caved in, so she squished herself against the opposite wall and tried to judge the best place to hide to keep from getting crushed to death. Kimimaro and Jugo were smart enough not to disturb the rocks blocking the door. That section of rock was helping to hold the weight of the rest of the ceiling, which kept dropping dust and pebbles into the room. She had the option of breaking through the next wall, but she didn’t know if it was an outer room. Breaking into the next room could prove pointless. Kabuto’s chakra scalpel couldn’t cut through the kaima’s skin, so he was fighting a losing battle. When Obito stepped into the room, he looked up at the ceiling and walked near the outer edges of the room to reach her.

“I told you to flare your chakra.”

“I was a little busy.”

“Kimimaro and Jugo are waiting outside. Is he compromised?”

“He is, and he can be crushed here. Let’s go,” Kana frowned, taking one of Obito’s hands. He tried to take her other hand but it was limp in his. He held her hand up by her wrist and pressed on certain areas, but he didn’t get a reaction. She couldn’t feel the hand at all. “We’ll deal with it later,” she insisted, snapping her fingers in front of his face. She saw him roll his eye at her, but he took them into kamui. The last thing she saw was Kabuto’s angry expression, and then they were outside of the hideout, where she saw that one section had already fallen down the cliffside. “I think he severed everything he could,” she explained as Obito inspected her hand and wrist. Jugo was watching them, so she arched a brow at him and dared him to say something to her after they’d gone to rescue him. “You must be Jugo.” She didn’t bother introducing herself, so Kimimaro did.

“This is Kana-sama. You’ve met Madara-san,” Kimimaro said, motioning to them both. Jugo bowed his head in greeting, but she made a face. The honorific had yet to disappear, and she’d asked Kimimaro countless times to drop it. She huffed and turned her head away. “Jugo lost his temper,” Kimimaro explained, when he caught her looking at the collapsed portion of the hideout. She could only imagine what that meant. She’d been too focused on her own fight to pay attention to anyone else. “Should we accompany you to the hospital? We would be more than happy to, Kana-sama,” Kimimaro offered, even though they all knew it would be more difficult to him. His strange illness affected his stamina. It reminded her too much of Itachi’s illness. Maybe they were the same.

“That won’t be necessary. Take your,” Obito paused and looked between Kimimaro and Jugo, “friend and return to Amegakure for a mission. He will be staying with you for the duration of this arrangement. He’s your responsibility. The moment he stops being useful, you’re both gone.” Obito waited for Kimimaro to protest, but Jugo placed a hand on Kimimaro’s shoulder and shook his head.

“I accept. If I lose control, I trust you to stop me. You have before,” Jugo said, squeezing the teen’s shoulder once more. The smile Kimimaro showed was almost blinding in nature. Kana couldn’t find it in herself to regret venturing to the northern hideout, even if she’d lost the use of her right hand. “Thank you for freeing me,” Jugo added, bowing his head to Obito and Kana. Kimimaro took one of Jugo’s hands and guided him along the crumbling staircase to the bottom of the cliffside, leaving Obito and Kana to watch them depart.

“He chose to come here,” Obito informed her, pulling her into himself. They disappeared into kamui and he didn’t finish the transition back into their world. He took her hand and inspected it with chakra, then he bent her wrist in multiple directions. She couldn't imagine someone choosing to go to Orochimaru. It was madness. “This is going to take time. You’ll be useless,” he admitted, dropping her hand. She’d been called a lot worse, but his word choice reminded her of the time he’d told her she was only good on her back. She punched his chest and he slapped her, further aggravating her. Before she could lash out at him again, he took them out of kamui. “You couldn’t have dodged?”

“Listen here, fucker, he’s not like the others in that hideout. You know that. He survived my eternal mangekyou. His medical knowledge and application makes him almost impossible to kill, and he doesn’t even have the knowledge for creation rebirth,” she explained, pulling away from him when he tried to touch her. He sighed and grabbed her left wrist, then he began pulling her in the direction of a very familiar hospital. They were in Snow again, and she just noticed the cold. How many times would they visit the hospital? Too many times. “You can’t heal this?”

“We need a specialist. If I make one tiny mistake, you might lose full use of your wrist and hand. It’s too risky. You’ll have to put up with the hospital for a few days. Sorry about your luck, Kana-sama.”

“I believe in your abilities.”

“Thank you, but you’re still staying in the hospital. Get over it.”

Chapter Text

Her injury required surgery, which meant that she had to trust total strangers with her recovery. As she processed the news, Obito asked important questions about rehabilitation and an estimated recovery time. In the end, the doctor politely excused himself, remarking that her surgery would take place in a few hours. She didn't want to wait six to eight weeks to fully recover, but it was better than the four to six months of recovery the nurse had described. After the doctor left, Kana admired the black wrist brace on her right wrist that restricted her movement, as if she had any mobility in her wrist or hand. Obito sat down on the edge of her bed and lightly nudged her leg. In a few hours, she would change into a hospital gown that would mark her as another prisoner. She'd tried three times to charm Obito enough to get him to take her away, but he refused every single time. The only thing keeping her from walking out the door was the fact that she wanted to regain full use of her wrist and hand, and Obito couldn't guarantee her that.

"You'll be off missions," Obito shared, further ruining her mood. He prodded her wrist brace and she slumped against her pillows, giving in to the words. They'd already taken time off to hunt for Kakashi, the traitor. "I hope you don't expect me to sit around with you for six to eight weeks." She turned her sharingan on him and he shrugged his shoulders, as if her silent threat meant nothing to him. It was time for him to be a bastard again. "You don't need me. Do you really want me hovering over you for weeks? You'll get tired of me in the first few hours of being with me."

"We're partners. You're staying."

"Are you ambidextrous?"

"You're digging a deeper grave." He frowned and slapped her thigh, so she kicked him in the side. She didn't expect him to stay with her, but as the minutes passed, he remained seated. He glanced back at the clock on the wall, while she tried not to think about her impending surgery. "You realize he's not dead," she said, as if they'd been discussing Kabuto the entire time. Obito didn't react, so he'd already known. "I thought you wanted him dead. Are you going to go back for him?"

"Did you know he's working on improving the impure world reincarnation?" He ignored her question in favor of asking her one, so she frowned. He'd told her to forget about the jutsu. She thought about reminding him, but he patted her cheek. "I haven't decided what to do with him, but he's highly intelligent." Kana recalled her opinion of spies. They weren't loyal to anyone. Loyalty meant a lot to her, after Kakashi's betrayal.

"You don't like that technique. You hit me for showing interest in it. Now you like it?"

"You angered me by suggesting we should use it to bring back Rin. You deserved it."

"Fuck you. You want an army of the undead? Fine. Who could you possibly want to bring back?"

"I haven't decided, beyond the deceased kage. He's interested in leaving them aware of their actions and able to communicate. It's psychological warfare. It would be mutually beneficial. It'll take him time to uncover the intricate details, but he's on his way," he said, stretching his arms. She didn't like the idea of working with Kabuto. She didn't think Orochimaru would allow them to play with his pet. "Did you know Madara expects me to resurrect him?"

"He can keep dreaming from the depths of hell," she replied, refusing to entertain the thought. Obito chuckled, clearly amused at the thought of Madara burning in hell. "You know if you bring him back, he'll betray you. That's what kind of man he is. I bet he calls himself an opportunist, like he hasn't planned to betray you from the moment he manipulated you into the wonderful bastard you are today." He pinched her thigh and she swatted his hand aside, but he rested it on her leg anyway.

"I don't plan on bringing him back. I need to get rid of this seal though. I thought that Kakashi would have destroyed it with raikiri, but he didn't."

"I can probably draw it from the circulation of chakra and ask Jiraiya. It's better than the alternative of seeking help from Orochimaru."

"You think Jiraiya will actually help us?"

"If I get him drunk enough and surround him with beautiful women? He'll be fine with it," Kana smirked. Obito sounded like he wanted to say something, but the doctor returned to collect her. Obito squeezed her thigh, then left her side. She didn't want surgery. She hated surgery. She hated a lot of things though. As she left the room, Obito waved at her.

The surgery took three hours, just because of the complete mess Kabuto had left behind. The doctors had been forced to alter tissue to fix all of the damage, and the scarring left behind was extensive. The doctor assured her that it would fade, but her skin was fair and the ugly stitches, purple skin, and crusted blood told her that she would have the scar for the rest of her life. She couldn't understand why Obito was so interested in Kabuto. She thought he would be outraged that Kabuto had hurt her. The fact that he wasn't angry upset her. She would have been angry, had their situations been reversed. Before the doctor left, he put her wrist splint on and warned her to take it easy, as if she had much of a choice. She stayed because the hospital gave her pain medication, but also because of the bars on the window. The Land of Snow knew exactly what kind of people they were dealing with when they built the hospital.

"I think you're supposed to leave it alone." Obito caught her trying to flex her fingers and toying with the splint, so she stopped. He held up a bag of takeout that smelled much better than the freezing cold hospital food she'd shoved away from herself. "How does it look?"

"It looks like shit, and I still can't feel my hand. Where did you go? I know you didn't sit patiently in the waiting room like a normal human being."

"Actually, I did. You need me right now, and I'm going to be supportive and attentive."

"Liar."

"I'm here now," he offered, sitting on the edge of her bed again. He took her right hand and turned it over, as if he could see her wrist through the splint and bandages. He squeezed her fingers, but she shook her head, letting him know that she still couldn't feel it. "I went to inform Pein about your injury, and I lied and told him I would be tracking Utakata." She narrowed her eyes at him, trying to judge whether he was lying or not. When he shrugged his shoulders, she gave up squinting at him. Lie or not, he was present. Utakata was their next target, but the man was constantly moving. Finding him would prove annoying.

"He really thinks it's going to take you six to eight weeks?" She couldn't see his expression, which only made his lack of response funnier. She laughed until her stomach ached, then Obito leaned in and checked her eyes. Maybe it was so funny because she was still coming out of the anesthesia, but she didn't care. "Where are we going to stay? Here?"

"No, in the mountains. There's a lake where people like to go ice fishing. I rented a cabin."

"You stole one."

"Technically, it's borrowing. We're giving it back. Don't give me that look. It's not a vacation. This anesthesia must have been great," he remarked, a little surprised at the smile on her face. She felt excited to be spending time in one place, even though she knew she would eventually get the desire to travel again. She would miss missions. The rehabilitation alone would be a nightmare. "This is the most you've smiled in weeks."

"Yeah? It's the anesthesia. Don't get used to it," she replied, unsure if it was a lie or not. She saw him roll his eye and she couldn't help but smile again. Yes, whatever they gave her was fantastic. "Will you fluff my pillows?" She asked him just to see if he was willing to help her. She thought he might purposely smash them down, but he fluffed them for her and unpacked her food for her. He was being especially nice. "This is weird. Are you really going to look after me the whole time?"

"I told you that you would get tired of me," he shrugged. She fought with the takeout container until he opened it for her, then she awkwardly gripped her chopsticks and dropped them, over and over again. He watched her struggle, until she considered just stabbing her gyoza, then he took her chopsticks and offered her a dumpling. "You can't even feed yourself," he sighed, though she knew he was poking fun at her. She opened her mouth and he stuffed the whole dumpling in. When she tried to spit it out, he poked it back in again. "You need to eat to regain your strength, Kana-sama."

"You're terrible," she complained, having swallowed the remainder of her dumpling. She could tell he was smiling. He grabbed another dumpling with her chopsticks and offered it to her, but she hesitated, expecting him to try the same stunt again. Still, she took a bite, and he patiently waited for her to finish it in her own time. "Are you going to get mad if I tell you you'd make a good house husband?" He pulled the next dumpling out of her reach, then he moved his mask and ate it himself. "Rude," she muttered.

"Tsuki no Me doesn't have a family edition."

"It could."

"You think everything is a good idea right now. Everything is appealing. I could probably tell you that you're dying and you'd still be wearing the same smile you're wearing right now."

"To be fair, I'm not dying," she pointed out, opening her mouth for another bite. He held the dumpling out and she took a bite. "If you marry me, that counts as the family edition of Tsuki no Me." She knew he was giving her a blank expression. When she tried to take another bite, he stuffed the remainder of the dumpling into her mouth and watched her choke.

"I thought you knew how to swallow," he shrugged, avoiding the balled-up napkin she threw at his face. He fed her one more dumpling, then she shook her head at the remaining food. "It's not if I marry you. It's when." She didn't know what to say, so they stared at one another in silence. When he looked away, it was to pack up her leftovers and set them aside. "Now a cat's got your tongue? What I said shouldn't have shocked you. Did you really think I'd string you along?"

"I wouldn't put it past you."

"I'm not stringing you along. If I didn't plan on marrying you, I wouldn't be sitting here right now. I would have fucked off."

"That's nice to know," she said, rolling her eyes. Still, she had a small smile on her face, because he'd chosen to stay. Her fingers twitched on her right hand and she showed off the miniscule movements to him. The weeks of recovery would drag on. "Will you stay the night?"

"I planned on it."

"Kai!"

"Really, Kana?"

Chapter Text

The cabin was covered in snow, and icicles hung from the edges of the roof, the slightly warmer day slowly melting them. The nearest town was three miles away, but it was a decent size with an indoor marketplace. Obito insisted on shopping for everything they would need for the duration of their stay in the Land of Snow, but Kana talked him into shopping by the week to keep produce fresh. Moving in felt a lot like going home; she hadn't had that kind of stability since Kirigakure. She was no help with all of the bags, so Obito had just dumped everything into kamui. She'd chosen to hike through the snow, since the summer sunlight made the snow sparkle. She couldn't imagine the country without the blankets of white, so it was good the country had never developed the machine necessary to bring spring to the nation. As she admired the cabin, Obito went inside, leaving her to judge the place in peace. There was something about the quaint cabin that pleased her. Maybe it was the thought of hot cocoa. Maybe it was the thought of a comfortable place to sleep. Anything was better than the hospital.

"I unpacked everything while you were staring at the place," Obito greeted her, glancing over his shoulder at her. The cabin was an open space, except for the bedrooms and bathroom, so it reminded her of the openness of her loft. "Are you tired?" She shook her head and he turned to watch her scan the large room. She didn't know if he'd actually put any thought into their retreat, but it was a nice place, perfect for staying off the radar during her recovery. "Are you hungry?" He was really trying, but she shook her head again.

"It's nice," she finally shared, a smile on her face. She flexed the fingers on her right hand, but it only led to pain. She was impatient to recover, even though staying at the cabin gave her quality time with Obito. "With my luck, we'll end up with cabin fever," she mumbled, even though she knew he could hear her. He held out his hand, so she took it and let him pull her in. She leaned against him and he rubbed her back. His behavior was odd and suspicious, but she kept her mouth shut.

"Probably," he agreed, his hands resting on her hips. She suspected he would play nice until she could begin using her right hand again, then he would force her to train with him to get back into shape. "Can I see how your wrist looks?" He took her right hand in his, silently waiting for her permission. The injury didn't look good, but she assumed he already knew that. She made a noise and he took it as permission granted.

He undid the velcro on her wrist splint and set it on the kitchen counter, then he began to loosen and unwrap the bandage wrapped around her wrist and over part of her palm. Dried blood had her skin stuck to the bandage, and no amount of gentleness made it hurt any less. She hissed at the slow way he tried to separate her skin from the wrapping, but she knew he had to be careful. Her skin was dark purple around her wrist and up into her hand, where she'd bruised, and the removal of the bandage had fresh blood coming to the surface around her stitches. It was ugly to look at, but they'd both anticipated the worst. He was careful not to touch the area around the stitches, but even his slow movements of her hand hurt her. When he was satisfied, he replaced the bandage with a clean one and helped her put her splint back on.

"I've seen worse," he informed her, as if she hadn't already known. His injuries had been extensive, a tale told by his body. His right arm had been reconstructed and lost too many times. The bit of flesh he'd had on his right arm was gone, a result of the first time he'd had his arm destroyed. She wondered if he would ever run out of parts. He flicked her forehead to regain her attention. "You weren't even listening." He wasn't upset by her poor attention span, so she shrugged her shoulders and leaned in to breathe his scent in.

"Why don't you ever talk about what happened?"

"There isn't anything to talk about."

"It's obvious as hell that there is. Did he," she trailed off when she realized the gravity of her question. He removed his hands from her body, a sign that he was done with the conversation and done with her. They'd lasted a full twenty-seven minutes together. "You know your lack of response only feeds into my assumption. You were young and vulnerable." He shoved her away from him and she stumbled back two steps, giving him space to walk away. The way he reacted only confirmed that something had happened. She stepped in front of him and he chose to stop his dramatic exit. "I'm not going to judge you."

"Nothing happened. He saved my life. I'm forever grateful," he said, the latter spoken with heavy sarcasm. He was minimizing. She could tell that much. She tried to think of something major that had happened to her, something he didn't know, something that would encourage him to share. She removed his mask and he frowned at her, watching the way she held it out of reach. "He kept me hostage for six months. He would always tell me that I hadn't recovered enough to make the journey back to Konoha. When that line stopped working, he started sealing me into caverns. I destroyed my right arm trying to break out. At the time, it didn't matter to me. Rin and Kakashi needed help, and I thought I could save them. It was a waste."

"He kidnapped you and everyone thought that you were dead, so no one looked for you. Why would you go back to him?"

"I had nothing left. He was willing to teach me everything I needed to survive. So no, Kana, he didn't touch me in the way you were insinuating. He was a lot of things, but not a child molester."

"Oh," she managed to say. She slowly extended her hand that held his mask, but he didn't snatch it from her grasp. "I shouldn't have pressured you," she sighed, the words as close to an apology that he would get from her. He took his mask, but he didn't put it back on. He wasn't happy with her. "That's all I'm going to get out of you, isn't it?"

"Yes," he replied, the single word making her feel worse for prying. "I don't want to detail what happened." He shrugged and she took her lower lip between her teeth to distract herself. She thought he would stay, but he stepped around her, went to the second bedroom, and slammed the door shut behind him. She sighed at his hasty departure and decided to give him whatever time he needed to cool down.

She lit a fire in the fireplace and sat down in front of it, content to outstretch her arms and warm her cold hands. She focused on his chakra, expecting him to get tired of their cold war and disappear on her, but he didn't. As she sat there, she watched the minutes tick by on the wall clock. It took her an hour to realize he wasn’t going to return. It took her another hour to get up the nerve to approach him. She assumed he was brooding, likely in complete darkness, as the sun had gone down. Maybe she should have apologized. Maybe he would have divulged a little more about himself. Demanding answers would only make matters worse, so she tossed that idea aside. Getting to know him seemed impossible, at times. By the time she reached the door to the second bedroom, she still didn’t have a plan to remedy the situation. He hadn’t yelled at her, and he hadn’t hit her, so he’d made some progress in their relationship, even if it was a temporary change. She knocked on the door before she tried the doorknob; though he didn’t respond to the knocking, he’d left the door unlocked, and it was all the invitation she needed to slip into the room.

“Are you trying to save money on the electric bill? You’re sitting in the dark,” Kana noted, leaving the door open. The hallway light cut through the darkness, but it didn’t reveal everything in the room. He sat on the side of the bed, his back facing the door. When she entered, he glanced over his shoulder at her, then went back to watching the snowflakes dance outside of the window. The cabin was drafty, even with the heaters. “About what I said,” she began, still hesitant to approach him, “I wasn’t trying to upset you.” She circled around the bed to take a seat beside him. There was nothing special about the snow driven by the harsh wind, but he made it seem almost magical. Even with his silence, she wanted to press her luck.

“Drop it.”

“Fine.”

Chapter Text

The first night in the cabin was tense, the atmosphere almost suffocating. She wanted to pressure him into talking to her, but her silent treatment was met with the same. He seemed perfectly fine ignoring her. Eventually, she gave up on him and went to make something to eat. In Yuketsu, like most of the nation, trade kept them afloat. With layers of snow and ice on the ground, cultivating the land was almost impossible. The southern part of the nation didn’t have snow year round, so there was a growing season, but only hardy fruits and vegetables survived. Yuketsu was nothing but snow-covered mountains and a large, iced-over lake that people relied on to provide fish. Because the nation primarily imported food, ice fishing was important, and it was perfect for rural areas, where the population was considered lower class. Yuketsu had earned its name because of a battle in the third war, where the enemy was trapped in the snowy mountains and passes, where countless men, women, and children died of exposure. The Land of Snow shinobi and civilians had adapted to surviving the elements. The rumor was that unclaimed bodies from the third war were still buried under the snowpack that never disappeared.

Obito joined her halfway through her second onigiri. "I had a nervous breakdown." He took the seat across from her at the kotatsu, but he didn't take one of the rice balls she'd prepared for them. His expression was grim, so she put her rice ball down on her plate and focused on him. "I don't remember everything that happened, and I prefer it that way. What I can remember is spending endless time wondering why I survived, and blaming myself for things that were out of my control. I didn't care for Madara, but he offered me power, exactly what I thought I needed. His teachings gave me the strength I needed to start the civil war in Kirigakure. I thought that vengeance would make me happy, but it didn't."

"It's great in the moment," she defended, thinking of her own penchant for revenge. With his serious confession finished, he took a rice ball for himself; she watched him take a bite and make a noise of appreciation. "Was he abusive? Did he hurt you?" She couldn't tame her curiosity, but it didn't seem to bother him anymore. He'd made the decision to finally speak to her. He slowly finished his rice ball, so she resumed eating her own.

"He hit me when I made mistakes, and when he thought that I wasn't trying hard enough. He was nothing like Minato. It was the discipline I needed, even if I hated it." His dismissive attitude reminded her of her own. Her family had been emotionally abusive, but she'd never pursued acknowledgment or apologies from them. Abuse of any kind was too common. The world could be a harsh place. He took another rice ball and she contemplated asking him for specific examples, but she shoved the thought aside in favor of finishing her food. “The night that you killed your parents,” he began, the words making her choke on her food. He waited patiently for her to clear her throat and down a few mouthfuls of water, but he watched her the entire time. She remembered the night well, but she made a point to dance around the subject of the sins he’d made her commit. She didn’t know why she always felt emptiness instead of anger. “I wanted to break you the way that he broke me.”

“At one point, I told my mother she made me wish I was the last of my clan,” Kana said, avoiding his gaze. She knew he’d likely been thinking about that night for a long time. He’d broached the subject because she’d pried into the life he’d shared with Madara. It seemed fair to compensate him with pieces of her past. She took the last rice ball and filled her mouth with food to keep from spilling every little hurt, every little memory, that resurfaced. When she couldn’t hide behind the food, she tried to think of some way to dismiss his words, but she couldn’t. He’d meant to break her. “My father killed himself in front of me. He chose to spare me the anguish. It was the last good thing he did for me. I didn’t want to kill them, even if I didn’t like them, but you took away my choice. I’m never going to forgive you for that, but I’ve learned to live with it.”

She chose not to bring up her mother, because she hadn't hesitated to kill the woman. She recalled the sound of her mother's head as it connected with the floor, and she felt her stomach churning. Deep breathing chased the memories away. At that moment, she understood how difficult it was to address the past. Maybe she'd learned another hard lesson about prying. He didn't apologize to her for that night. He finished his last rice ball, drank his cold tea, and left the table. When he realized she hadn't moved, he motioned her forward. Maybe it was wrong of her to answer him, to give up on a conversation they should have had years ago, but she didn't mind being wrong. She left the dirty dishes on the low table and followed him into the main bedroom, where she found his cloak in the open closet and his mask on the bed. Sometime during the preparation of dinner, he'd migrated from his brooding space into the bedroom they would share. Even though it was strange of her to seek comfort from someone who hurt her, she still sought comfort from him. And she knew he couldn't believe it.

"Are you done being a bastard?"

"For right now."

"You aren't that person anymore."

"Yes, I am," he frowned, standing near the bed, unwilling to sit down for a decent conversation. She placed her hands on his shoulders and applied pressure with her left hand until he took the hint and sat down. "I treat you better because how I feel about you has changed. I haven't changed as a person. It's been years, and I still haven't apologized for what I did to you. I think you're crazy." She stared at him for a few minutes, waiting for more accusations revolving around her mental stability, but none came. If he expected her to demand an apology, he was mistaken. His apology wouldn't bring her family back. "Say something," he insisted.

"An apology won't bring my family back." His unhappy expression fell away, until she couldn't read him at all. She didn't mean to push him away with her words, so she ignored his reaction and continued speaking. "They emotionally abused me at every opportunity. They made me feel worthless. They would have called you trash, just like they called Kakashi trash. They would have pressured you to marry me. They would have pressured us for grandchildren. Nothing was ever enough for them. It's overly complicated, because of guilt and shame, so I don't expect an apology from you." She shrugged her shoulders, brushing off the temporary burn of lost possibilities, and he dragged her down beside him, so they were both seated on the bed. She brushed her fingers through his hair and he leaned against her. Yes, she was crazy, but sometimes a little crazy was necessary.

"You still love me." It wasn't a question, not that she expected a question, so she continued carding her fingers through his hair. He would need a haircut before they left the cabin. He pulled back enough so that she could see his expression. He looked suspicious, as if she were lying to him.

"If I didn't love you, I wouldn't be here. You said it yourself. You don't need me anymore." She poked his cheek and he took her hand, careful not to hurt her. She wondered if he thought about revenge still, if both of them just lived for one revenge after another, the blaze associated with every success only fueling them. Maybe the curse of hatred was really life blood to their clan. "I don't want to revisit this topic again." It wasn't a request, but he still nodded, as if she'd given him a choice. She didn't think he wanted to talk about his time with Madara again, so it was a mutual decision.

"They're looking for us," Obito said, after some time had passed. Until then, she'd been content lightly massaging his scalp, with him pressed so tightly against her. He took her injured hand and positioned it to the southwest. She searched for chakra signatures until she put together Tenzo's ANBU team, with the lovely addition of one Hatake Kakashi. She cut off her search and smiled at the empty room, some malice in her heart.

"Let them find us."

Chapter Text

She woke up to the smell of freshly prepared bacon and the tempting aroma of morning coffee. Kana had to look around to jog her memory. They weren't on the run. They were safe in the cabin. She turned onto her right side to face the bedroom door, where she listened to Obito's distant complaints and the banging of kitchen cabinets. When she heard him swear, she threw the covers back and swung her legs over the side of the bed. The floor was chilly against her bare feet, even with the heater going, so she was quick to leave the room. She caught him eating one of the bacon strips, so she plucked the remainder from his fingers and ate it. It was a little overdone, but still delicious. The rolled omelets were perfect, yellow and fluffy looking on the plates, where he deposited the bacon strips. She thought she would struggle with pouring her coffee, but he poured her a cup and carried it over to the kotatsu. His generosity had her raising a brow in question, but he didn't see the expression. He was too busy finishing off his own eggs. She wondered if they would ever have another taste of normalcy. She doubted they could celebrate and retire after taking over the world. She didn't know what he expected to do after winning the war.

"This is different," she spoke up, her voice clear over the sizzling of more bacon. She hated being hit with grease, so she always used a dish towel when cooking bacon in the skillet. He glanced over his shoulder at her and caught her trying to maneuver her chopsticks with her left hand. Her movements were awkward and she had trouble parting the sticks. "I give up." Before she snapped the chopsticks in anger, she put them on her plate.

"I think you just find something romantic about me feeding you."

"Oh I love when you choke me with food."

"As opposed to choking you in other ways?"

"Very funny," she replied, her tone dry. She patiently waited for him to finish cooking and join her at the kotatsu. He fed her some of her eggs, then he had some of his own food. He alternated until all of the food was gone, then they sat at the kotatsu, unwilling to give up the warmth. She sipped her coffee, even after it had gone cold. "Do you think they'll find us today? It's Yugao, so I think it's possible, but unlikely." She referenced the ANBU currently hunting them for their attack on Naruto. Obito hummed and took a drink of his coffee, as if he agreed with her. "Just because I'm recovering doesn't mean I'm unable to defend myself."

"I didn't say anything," he shrugged. She squinted at him, then shifted from seiza to stretch her legs out, where she rested them against his legs. "How is the pain?" She made a so-so motion with her left hand and carefully removed the splint to show him the wounds from her surgery. The skin was still bruised, but the bleeding had stopped. As expected, her skin still stuck to the bandage. He had to wrap it in a clean bandage, which he did without complaint. "Can you grip your chopsticks?"

She tried flexing her fingers, then her wrist. When she felt more confident, she tried the little test of her fine motor skills, but she couldn't get her hand to stay in the position for too long. In the end, she had to drop the chopsticks. He took her hand in his and she felt the familiar crawling sensation of his chakra testing the job the doctor had done. His face was one of concentration, then he nodded to himself. She shook his hand to show him she had some grip, though she couldn't form a tight fist. She couldn't handle her sword with her left hand, or anything requiring precision, but she could punch someone, which was better than nothing.

"He did a good job?"

"Better than I expected. You won't be fighting Kabuto again. This is already inconvenient."

"So sorry to inconvenience you. I'll remember to sacrifice my left hand in the future."

His lips twitched for a smile that he quickly smothered. He helped her put her splint back on by tightening it with the velcro, then they carried their plates and cups into the kitchen, where he washed and she dried. Domestic life was boring. She wasn't complaining about spending time with Obito, but drying dishes wasn't her idea of fun. Frowning, she ran the clean dish towel over the clean plate, then stacked it on the side to put it away at the end. Obito looked bored, but he was very particular about cleanliness, which wasn't a surprise given most shinobi craved order. But his perfectionism made the chore last that much longer. For some fun, she flicked bubbles at him, but he didn't care that he had bubbles on his right cheek.

"Do you want to play in the snow? You're already tired of domestic life," Obito said, as if he could read her thoughts. She wondered what her life would have been like if she'd had a child. She would have wasted plenty of time doing dishes and laundry. He poked her side so she flicked his cheek. "The cabin has some books to read. You have a puzzle book. There are things to do." He rolled his eyes when he saw her wrinkle her nose. "I can help you train," he offered, motioning to her left hand.

"You'll just laugh at me."

"You're probably right."

"Can you draw?"

"I can. Why?" He finished washing the last dish and handed it off to her. She couldn't draw, unless she used her sharingan to copy the movements of someone who could draw. "It's not that hard. Did you want to learn?" He already knew what she wanted to say just by looking at her unimpressed expression. He drained the dish water and took the dish towel to wipe his hands. "Do you want me to draw something for you? I can draw you. We can hang it on the fridge." He was teasing her, so she nudged her hip against his and moved to put the dry dishes away.

"I thought this would be more fun," she sighed, ignoring him as he held her from behind. He was touchy, and she didn't mind because it was him. "Do you think that old television works?" He glanced at the living room area, then shrugged a shoulder. They could always watch something, but that seemed boring too. She made a noise. "We could play Go."

"You're a sore loser."

"You're just a dick winner."

"Reading it is."

She opened her mouth to protest, then she gave up and closed it. The cabin had to have some kind of interesting reading material, even if it was outdated. He pinched her hip, then he led the way to the living room area. He stopped at a bookcase on the wall and began to scan the titles, while she gathered her new sudoku book. She heard him chuckling and chose to ignore him, writing it off as him being ridiculous. When he joined her on the couch, he had a book with a picture of a zombie on the front. Kakashi would have chosen a romance novel, and she hated that she knew that, and that she compared them. He didn't ask her if she wanted to read along with him, so she began analyzing her puzzle. The book didn't hold his attention for long. He closed it with a sound snap and tossed it onto the coffee table, where it landed with a thump. He didn't mind reading, but it wasn't his favorite pastime. Without a word, she leaned against his side and offered him a clear view of her puzzle.

"Four can't go there. It has to be the third box, top left corner." He pointed to the numbers she'd already written down and how the placement of that number conflicted with another. Frowning, she flipped her pencil around, erased the number, and put it where he'd pointed. "You really consider this fun?"

"It requires a lot of thought. It also works with a partner. When I make mistakes, I can blame them on you." She added a six to her box, but he shook his head and pointed to a different square. She didn't see the purpose of moving the number, so she left it. He waited for her to get to the next set of boxes, then he pointed to the six again. She huffed, but she erased the six in the first set and waited for him to help her replace it with another number. "You said you weren't book smart?"

"I'm not. I have poor reading comprehension. If it weren't for Rin, I think I would have flunked out of the academy," he shrugged, as if it were normal to admit his faults. She'd excelled in school. She wondered if she would have mocked him, had she associated with him back then. In the end, she decided that it was more of a Hajime thing. "I want to say I strengthened that weakness, but I didn't. There was always something more important." He pointed to a blank box and she put a seven into it. When she looked at him for approval, he nodded.

"It's hard to believe someone like you ever graduated at the bottom of the class. You're a badass."

"You think?"

"I'm not feeding your ego until you preen. Contribute to this puzzle partnership."

Chapter Text

With the snow piled high, she had nowhere to hide. Her trail of footprints gave away her position multiple times, forcing her to move to stay ahead of him. She covered her nose and mouth with her gloved hands and tried to hide the white puffs of warm breath with her every exhale. She was being hunted, and her heart was racing. She couldn't feel him, but she had a feeling he could detect her, even with her suppressing her chakra. He'd learned well. He'd once told her that his sensing was so powerful that he could detect people in other dimensions. She didn't know if he was lying, but the thought was scary. No one could hide from him. The tree she hid behind was a large pine tree with branches weighed down with snow that shielded her from view. When she heard the sound of snow crunching under his feet, she held her breath and waited for him to pass her. Unfortunately, her footprints gave her away. She tried to use a body flicker, but he caught her arm and stopped her before she could get away. She tried squirming to force him to release her, then she tried punching his arm. He rewarded her with snow down her shirt. Before he could release her and escape, she smashed a handful of snow in his face, kicked him in the shin, and ran. He tackled her from behind and they fell into the deep snow.

"Cheater." He snorted at her childish response, because they both knew she had been cheating the entire time. He was better with their improvised hide-and-seek snowball fight. "Five out of eight?" He rolled off of her and she sat up, both of them surrounded with the deep snow. The flurries in the air would eventually turn to heavy snow showers, just as it had over the last week. To punctuate the end of their game, he hit her in the side of the head with a snowball.

"The cold doesn't bother me, but your clothes are soaked and the wind is picking up. Game over," he decided, forcing himself to his feet. He offered her a hand to help her up, which she gladly took, then they started the walk back to their temporary home. Already, she was looking forward to sitting in front of the fireplace. "I ran into some traps, but you wouldn't know anything about it. You didn't leave a dozen explosive tags attached to a tripwire," he said, his nonchalant approach making her smile. She'd cheated and set traps, but she shrugged her shoulders.

"That's odd. I'd never do that to you, Obito."

"Of course not. The pit someone made with earth release was filled with explosive tags. Odd how I kept running into traps when we're the only people in the area."

"Maybe we aren't alone. There could be ghosts. Have you brushed up on your exorcism skills?"

"Do you need a dip in the lake?"

She snapped her mouth shut and turned to glare at him, knowing he meant to remind her of her experience falling through the ice. He smirked at her and brushed some of the snow from her hair, so she elbowed him in the side and took off running, beginning a game of body flickers that stopped at the porch of their cabin. Obito held the door for her and they went inside, where they removed their boots and left them by the door. She didn't understand why the cold didn't bother him, but she thought it was unfair. While he made a fire in the fireplace, she waited for him. She wanted a hot shower and hot cocoa. She wanted something sweet, but she needed to thaw out first.

"When do you think they'll get here?"

"Hm."

He removed his gloves and placed them near the fire, so she did the same. She didn't have to clarify, since he felt the same chakra signatures. Kakashi was in Yukigakure, which was about three hours away, and if they traveled further north, they would be within range for Yugao. After several minutes of silence, Obito shrugged his shoulders. She wanted him to feel the same burn of betrayal and the desire for revenge. He was indifferent, and it seemed unfair. She nudged his shoulder and he poked her side.

"He doesn't know Doto is under my genjutsu, so we should be fine. I can always pay him a visit." He was still unconcerned with the ANBU team's close proximity. She wanted Kakashi to find them. She planned on killing his teammates in front of him. He'd sold them out, as if everything they'd had was meaningless. Maybe it was his way of letting go. Love didn't always work that way. "Thinking about sweet revenge again?" He led the way to the bathroom, where she would inevitably share a shower with him.

"He needs to learn not to fuck with us. I'm willing to teach him that lesson by killing every member of his team."

"I can tell that you're upset."

"He abandoned us to go running back to the village who treated him like shit, and he's probably fucking Tenzo again."

"He's worthless trash," Obito shrugged, closing them into the bathroom. She appreciated his words, but he still seemed as if he couldn't care less. He read something in her frown. "What difference does it make? You said it yourself. He abandoned us. What he does with the remainder of his miserable life isn't my problem. Just forget him." He placed his hands on her shoulders and she looked into his eyes. He was trying to let her down gently. She pressed her lips together to keep from protesting. "He doesn't want you. He doesn't care about you. I want you. I care about you." She couldn't decide if his words were sweet or cruel. When she considered disputing the claims, she sighed. Based on Kakashi’s actions, Obito was correct. It was a bitter pill to swallow. "You don't have it in you to kill him, but you wish you did."

"And you do?"

"Do you want me to kill him?"

"Shut up and take off your clothes," she frowned, turning her back to him. She didn't want to look at him, because he was right, as usual. Instead of following her command, he started tugging her thick sweater up, clearly choosing to undress her. He was trying to get her to calm down and move on, to focus on him instead of focusing on the traitor traipsing through their country. She raised her arms for him and he lifted her shirt up until he could pull it off and drop it on the floor. "Would you? If I asked you to, would you kill him?" She turned to face him and he started pulling her undershirt off.

"Yes," he answered, as if she'd asked for something simple. She raised her arms again and he removed her undershirt and her sports bra, then dropped them on the floor. She wanted the heat from the shower, but he was too focused on undressing her, and she was trying to convince herself that it wasn't jealousy and raw hurt that drove her to question him. "Do you want me to kill him?" He asked the question again, as if her answer would change. He let her imagine Kakashi's death as he continued undressing her.

She never answered him.

Chapter Text

"You asked me if I wanted you to kill Kakashi."

She didn't continue. She didn't know where she meant to go with the thought, except that she wanted him to know she'd acknowledged the question and put thought into an answer she just didn't have. It was so quiet in the room that she wondered if he'd fallen asleep, then she felt him brush her hair aside to expose her neck. He kissed her skin and ran his left hand along her outer thigh, trailing his fingers up until he could slip his hand between her legs. She knew he was trying to distract her, but with Kakashi in Yukigakure and the promise of another reunion in their future, she wanted to know where she stood. Did she hate him enough to want him dead? Did she want to make him suffer until he took his final breath? Obito stopped rubbing her through her panties when he realized she was too focused on her jumbled thoughts. He sat up enough to lean on his right elbow and she turned onto her back to see his face. Maybe he already knew the answer. Obito seemed to know everything, after all. Or maybe it was subtle manipulation guiding her along.

"Kana, I already know the answer." She stared up at him, waiting for him to divulge more, to tell her what she didn't know. He ran his left hand over his face, because it was nearing two in the morning and the caffeine from their coffee was long gone. "If you had to think about it for twelve hours, the answer is no, you don't want me to kill him. If you want someone dead, you're forward. At this point, I'm not even upset. You'll never really let him go." Her brows furrowed as soon as she heard the accusation, but she couldn't argue with him; in the end, he didn't want an argument with her. Obito seemed to know everything.

"I want you to kill Tenzo."

"Alright."

"That's it?"

Lips pursed, she tried to catch signs of deception in his eyes and facial expression, but he wasn't openly dishonest, or even guarded. He leaned down to kiss her and she held him as they kissed. He calmed the giddiness in her gut at the thought of seeing the devastation on Kakashi’s face. Nothing mattered more than his lips on hers. She was more receptive to his touch when he slid his left hand under her t-shirt. He cupped one of her breasts and she slid her hand down to squeeze his ass. She understood kissing and touching, so she focused on the feeling of him against her rather than the ANBU still inhabiting Yukigakure. The cabin was their oasis, and she felt bold enough to grip his clothed cock. He groaned into the kiss as she teased him, both of them drunk off simple pleasures. She loved losing herself with him, drowning with him. When he thrust into her hand, he squeezed her breast and his kisses strayed from her lips to her jaw to her neck, where he found a spot that made her feel a chill of pure pleasure. Getting lost with him was too exciting, every time feeling brand new.

She released her hold on him and he pulled back to see her expression, clearly thinking she'd changed her mind or tired of him. She nudged his shoulder until he took the hint and moved. He lay on his back and she trailed kisses from his lips down to the top of his boxers. She sat up on her knees and pulled on the waistband, allowing it to snap against his skin. He didn't need her to repeat the gesture. She waited for him to remove his boxers, then took his cock in her left hand and circled her tongue around the head. He ran his right hand along her back, on top of her shirt and underneath it, until she stopped teasing him and leaned back on her heels to remove her shirt. He stroked himself for her, until she had her fingers hooked into the top of her panties.

"Leave them on." It was a simple request, but it was new. He took her left hand and wrapped it around his cock again, then guided her into stroking him. When she took his cock into her mouth, he leaned against the wall at the head of the bed and watched her. "Look at me." She obliged, his simple request making her tingle in anticipation. He brushed his hand over her messy hair and she hummed around him. "Take all of it." He rested his hand on her head, but he didn't force her. She took as much as she could take and he smirked when she choked. He looked so good that she forgave him instantly.

He stopped her before he came and she pulled back to lick the remnants of precum from her lips. She straddled his legs and he was the one to nudge her panties to the side and guide his cock into her. Their movements were slow at first, with her hands on his shoulders and his hands on her hips, but she enjoyed the feel of him inside of her. His grip on her hips tightened and he thrust up to meet her, which had her digging her nails into his skin. She gasped as he did it again, and she moaned into the series of kisses they shared. She'd wanted him to feel good, but he'd taken control. He chased her gasps and moans, rewarding her by shoving her panties further to the side to press on her clit. His fingers were warm against her clit, and he alternated applying pressure and making quick passes over it.

"I'm close," she warned him, feeling overwhelmed by all of the stimulation. Before she came, he stopped touching her and she felt as if every part of her body had gone numb, except for the pleasure radiating from between her thighs. "Touch me." She whined the words at him and he smirked at her again. He leaned in to kiss her and she turned her head, forcing him to kiss her cheek.

"You're so tight." He said the words before his lips met her cheek. She turned to capture his lips the second time, and they parted enough for him to groan the following words against her lips. "You feel so good around me." She clenched her eyes shut, as if she could stop the tingling building up again, the feeling that made her feel too hot. "Look at me." He touched her clit again and she forced herself to open her eyes. She met his gaze as she came, his name on her lips and tongue, as if she only knew his name and nothing more. Her movements became jerky, until he finally held her still.

"You didn't cum," she mumbled, her throat feeling dry and raw from her moans. He shrugged a shoulder so she moved her hips again, chasing more pleasure. "Do it again," she requested, still feeling breathless. He was busy kissing her neck and squeezing her ass, so she slapped his right shoulder. "Talk to me again. Keep going," she mumbled, catching him in a kiss as he was pulling away from her neck. He squeezed her ass once more and she longed to feel the sting of his hand meeting her ass.

"You're so wet for me."

"Obito!"

"Tell me what you want."

He started his rough thrusts and she couldn't think straight. He continued to talk to her, but she just moaned at him to go faster, to go deeper, to be rougher. Her second orgasm came too fast, as it always did. She rode the high until he came, his thrusts becoming shallower until they finally stopped moving. She leaned against him as her body hummed. Her walls still pulsed around his cock, so every tiny shift had her making a noise of pleasure. They held one another until he finally tired of rubbing her back. She withdrew to her side of the bed, where she fell onto her back and sighed. She hoped he wouldn't say something stupid to ruin the calm settled over them. He moved her panties back into place and she frowned at them being ruined by his cum. She thought about giving him a dirty look, but she rolled over so she was pressed against his side and threw one leg over his, trapping him.

"That was different," she eventually said, feeling the need to say something. He chuckled, though it was breathy, because she was right. His voice was nice, along with his commands and his filthy compliments. "So I'm wet for you?" She tipped her head back to see his face and he shrugged his shoulder, as if they didn't have to draw attention to the obvious. "Should I tell you how hard you get for me?" She was teasing him and they both knew it. "Should I tell you that I want to go again?"

"They left Yukigakure."

"Fantastic. He's not even here and he manages to ruin a good time."

"I'll fuck you in the shower. Let's go."

She pulled back so he could get out of bed, then she watched him collect clothing they'd left scattered on the floor. The mess had bothered him, whether he admitted it or not. He tossed her shirt at her and she caught it with her right hand, then she followed his lead and collected her winter clothing from earlier in the day. The fire had dried the clothes, but they were no longer warm from the heat. She didn't want Kakashi to die, but it was inevitable. At some point, they would have to kill him to stop him from interfering.

"Did you change your mind?" Obito poked his head back into the room and caught her staring at her armful of clothes. She didn't need to tell him where her thoughts had gone. She glanced down at her clothes again, then she dropped them on the floor. She would worry about everything after the shower. "Fuck you until you forget?"

"Definitely."

Chapter Text

"The bear traps are down, and the pits are covered with snow-covered branches. Did you get the ninja wire up?"

"Remind me never to betray you."

She smiled at his words and he rolled his eyes. From where they stood, they had a beautiful view of the sunrise coloring the sky in shades of pink and purple. He had his manriki in his right hand, the chain held tightly in his clenched fist. They could feel the ANBU team enter the large forest. Kakashi was the only one hidden from their sensing, and that disappointed Kana, because she wanted the perfect reunion, hopefully with his crushed ankle in one of her bear traps. She flexed her fingers on her right hand and moved her wrist in small circles. Yugao was her first target, and her blood sang at the thought of fighting with pure kenjutsu. Hayate had taught the woman well, but Kana had been on a team with Hayate, and she’d sparred with him enough to know how he handled himself. She still had the bitter taste of defeat from their last fight. The last she'd heard, he'd died in the invasion. She would make sure Yugao reunited with him in the pure land.

They heard a strangled shout and the sound of metal colliding with metal. Someone had stepped into one of the bear traps, which pleased Kana, but she knew it wasn't Kakashi. Obito disappeared in a body flicker and she followed him, his chakra leading her to the edge of the forest. From where they stood, Kana could make out a figure on the ground. The nameless ANBU was trying to free himself from the trap, but he couldn't pry the teeth apart. She heard a sickening crunch, followed by a scream. She saw silver hair and Obito held up his hand, stopping her from attacking Kakashi. Obito knew she wanted to fight the man, but there were other traps. Tenzo located the pits filled with explosive tags and detonated them, while Yugao fought her way through a web of razor-sharp ninja wire. It was nice to watch them struggle. With them separated, Kana felt invincible. She'd orchestrated the perfect playground.

"Obito!" Kana frowned at his name on Tenzo's tongue. Wood hands burst from the ground to try and capture them, but Obito used his mangekyou to avoid being caught. Kana just flickered away. "It doesn't have to end this way! Surrender." Obito tipped his head to the side, as if he couldn't fathom surrendering before he put up a fight. Kana threw a few shuriken that Tenzo deflected, then she left the fight to Obito.

"Looks like your teammate is in trouble," Kana said, all the greeting Kakashi received from her. He tried stabbing her, but she blocked with her wakizashi in a quick draw. "Tch. Look who's bloodthirsty. I can help you with that bear trap." She pointed the tip of her blade at the downed shinobi's throat, which earned her a punch that she caught with her left hand. "Did you know that Madara would call this a dance? Well? Do you want to dance, Kakashi?" She squeezed his fist, but he tried kicking her, so she gave up her hold. She kicked his teammate's knee and the man screamed in pain. "I'm sorry, nameless man. Seems like Kakashi can't protect his comrades."

"I don't want to kill you," Kakashi said, gritting his teeth. He punched her in the gut, so she swept one leg and punched his other thigh. He couldn't run, because she would kill his teammate. He swiped at her with his tanto and she deflected with a kunai, her left hand still stronger than her right. "It doesn't have to be this way," he tried reasoning, sounding too much like Tenzo for her tastes.

"You chose your side. You're nothing but a filthy traitor!"

She cut a deep groove into his armor and had to jump out of the way of Yugao's blade. She kicked Yugao in the side and stabbed Kakashi in the arm with her kunai. To avoid being struck, she relinquished her hold on the kunai. With one graceful swing, she severed the nameless shinobi's leg at his thigh. Nothing they did would save the man's life. He bled out in the snow. Yugao came at her again and they locked blades, a distraction while Kakashi still tried to free his fallen teammate. Yugao fought well, as expected, but Kana fought dirty. Kana punched her in the face and Yugao stumbled backwards. Kana thrust her blade forward and stabbed Yugao in the shoulder. She kicked Yugao in the stomach to send the woman back further and free her blade. She swiped at Yugao's throat but Kakashi intervened, his visible eye narrowed, his gaze cold. It was the same look she'd seen when he fought Hidan, and it was directed at her.

"Now now, Kakashi, no one wins with revenge," she teased him, striking the tanto she'd gifted him. The blade crackled with the lightning chakra coating the metal, so she sharpened her blade with wind chakra. He tried stabbing her in the chest, so she turned, letting the blade pass her, and cut another groove into his armor. It was annoying, and he wasn't her target. Around them, the forest came alive with wood release. "Do you want to kill me now, Kakashi? Does it have to be this way?" She liked teasing him too much. He backhanded her and she stumbled, raising a hand to touch her bloody nose.

"If death is the only thing you understand, then I'll give you death." His dark tone and the ominous words only made her throw her head back and laugh. She blocked two quick strikes with her wakizashi and sliced a clean, vertical line through his mask, right over his left eye. His mask fell to the ground, revealing an out-of-place scowl.

"My fight isn't with you today. Sit and wait your turn," she said, her three tomoe shifting for her mangekyou. She winked at him, throwing him off, then she trapped him in a genjutsu focused on the moment he killed Rin. Yugao made a reappearance, so Kana gave up on her fight with Kakashi to engage in another kenjutsu battle. "I'm going to reunite you with Hayate," Kana shared, smiling. Yugao hesitated, the words taking her by surprise, so Kana used her mangekyou again. "Do you remember when you first met? The first time he kissed you? The first time he told you he loved you? Did you cry when you found out he was dead? Think about it." She purred the words as she drew on those memories, manipulating them until they felt brand new. "Don't you want to see him again?"

"Yes," Yugao whispered, her voice breaking. Kana disarmed the woman, which was an easy feat; Yugao was too caught up in the memories of her time with her boyfriend. "No. No, this isn't right. This isn't real. Kai!" Kana laughed as the woman tried to break free from her technique. Memories were powerful things, things people loathed or loved. Kana released her by breaking two of her ribs with a strike from the hilt of her sword.

"If you won't play along, I'll break every bone in your body."

"What happened to you?"

"It's nothing personal. I just want to send a message. Kakashi will be going home with corpses."

Kana eventually broke Yugao's retrieved blade, then they resorted to fighting with kunai. Kakashi regained awareness as Kana took a kunai to her side. He tried to reach Yugao, but he was too slow. Kana jammed her kunai into Yugao's throat and twisted, then Kakashi tackled her and they crashed into the snow. They fought one another on the ground, the snow red with Yugao's blood. Kakashi slammed her against the ground, so she kneed him in the nuts and rolled over to trap him in the same way. He gathered lightning to his fist, so she put her forearm against his throat and applied pressure. As he lost oxygen, the lightning disappeared. He headbutted her and she fell back, but she used a body flicker to avoid a strike meant for her eyes. He'd tried to blind her.

Tenzo had a wooden spear stuck in his shoulder, and another one bursting from his back. When Kakashi learned that she'd been distracting him, he went right for Obito, leaving her to kick Yugao's corpse away from her. Obito was more than capable of fighting both men at once, but the telltale signs of raikiri had her gritting her teeth. She used fire release to create two tigers that separated and went for Tenzo and Kakashi. Obito enhanced her fire tigers with wind release, creating flames that extended from the tigers, like flickering armor, then he appeared at Kana’s side. She went to tug the kunai free, but he stopped her.

"You'll need medical attention when you remove it. This won't take much longer," he assured her, turning to watch a water dragon crash into one tiger. Kakashi had drawn on the snow for the attack, which was clever. "Tenzo is a lackluster version of Hashirama." Kana laughed at the correct description; she had to wonder what Madara would think of the pathetic man. He was no former ANBU captain. Becoming a sensei had ruined him. "Watch the spear," he instructed, pointing to Tenzo. He was smirking, and she could tell by his voice. In a second, she saw the spear extend and explode outwards. Tenzo fell to his knees and coughed up blood.

"You're a slightly better version of Hashirama," she teased him. He shoved her over and she fell into the snow, where she glared up at him. She got to her feet and watched Kakashi's shaking hands try to apply first aid that would never help Tenzo. "I bet fifty ryo he cries." Obito snorted.

When he realized there was little he could do for Tenzo, Kakashi slowly raised his head from his bleeding companion and showed the pure rage in his narrowed eyes. Obito slowly walked from Kana’s side, even as she hissed for him to stop and leave it alone. He glanced back at her. “If he wants a fight, I’m going to give him a fight,” he said, amusement in his tone.

He sounded like he meant to spar with Kakashi, but they both knew Obito wanted to express how angry Kakashi had made him by abandoning them. Obito’s indifference was a mask. Kakashi stepped over Tenzo’s downed form, leaving the man to apply pressure to the most serious wound, then he gathered lightning to his hand, while Obito dropped his manriki and armed himself with a kunai. It took seconds for Kakashi to gather and control the lightning, and Obito patiently waited for the moment Kakashi moved. With their sharingan, all three of them could see the subtle muscle movement.

“Well?” Obito was smirking beneath the mask. Kana shouted as Kakashi flew forward. In the blink of an eye, Kakashi’s fist broke through Obito’s chest, the lightning chakra burning flesh, the force of it breaking bones. Obito staggered for a moment, but he maintained eye contact with Kakashi. He raised his right hand, the kunai clasped in his tight fist. “My turn,” Obito said, his voice breaking. He thrust the kunai into Kakashi’s chest, breaking right through the armor. He couldn’t get the blade all the way through, or he would have punctured Kakashi’s heart. Still, he pushed forward until Kakashi wavered. The man withdrew his bloody fist and tried to rip the kunai free, but Obito gave one last push and Kakashi was down on his knees, blood seeping from the wound.

“You knew I didn’t want him dead! You knew!” Kana slapped Obito so hard that his mask flipped to the side. He stumbled two steps to the side, then coughed up blood. The rest of the blood was spat at Kakashi’s knees, where the man had fallen and hadn’t regained the strength to stand. Kana looked at the blood flowing down Kakashi’s armor, but she didn’t go to him. She draped one of Obito’s arms over her shoulders and helped him remain upright. “You stupid piece of shit. What the fuck were you thinking? You’re losing too much blood.”

“The seal is gone,” Obito informed her, as if taking the blow to his heart had been worth it. She could see right through his chest, and the fact that he wasn’t dead scared her. She wondered what he’d become. He wasn’t fully human, and hadn’t been for half of his life. “Thanks, Bakashi,” he laughed, shoving the man over. Kana tightened her grip and turned, leading Obito away from the bloody scene. They had no belongings to gather from the cabin, so it was a matter of walking far enough away for Obito to regain enough sense to get them into kamui.

She heard Tenzo shout Kakashi’s name and clenched her eyes shut, because of course the man would be more concerned with Kakashi’s state than his own. Obito turned and held her to himself. As they transitioned to kamui, she met his gaze. His mask was still crooked.

Chapter Text

“You’re bleeding all over the futon.”

“I’m fine.”

Kana looked from his narrowed eyes to the gaping hole in his chest, then she looked away, telling herself to choose her battles. She didn’t address the bleeding wound on her side, mostly because the adrenaline had worn off and the pain kept her from fully processing the fact that they’d left Kakashi for dead. She reached out with a gloved hand to touch the area around his bleeding wound and he slapped her injured side, making her cuss and jump away from him. She left her seat by his side and sat on the end of the bed, her back facing him. He didn’t ask for her forgiveness, and she offered him none. He had what he really wanted, regardless of her feelings on the matter. They had no need to visit Jiraiya, because Kakashi had solved Obito’s problem. Even though Kakashi had meant to kill him, Obito had shown pleasure at their parting. Their success felt too much like failure.

Her right hand was tired, from where she’d pushed herself too hard, but the exercise would help, in the end. She forced herself to keep operating, even though it ached. She rubbed over the scar tissue, the stitches already gone, removed by Obito’s careful hands. He nudged her back with one of his feet and she threw him a glare over her left shoulder. He tried to lean forward, arm outstretched, hand reaching for her, but he hissed in pain and fully collapsed on the futon. With a shaky breath, he leaned back on his elbows, forcing him up enough to try and slow the bleeding. They both knew he wouldn't die, even if spite alone kept him going. Lips pursed, she got to her feet and went through her belongings. She needed a first-aid kit for both of them, and she was sure she'd restocked it the last time they'd stopped in a village. He watched her sort through her belongings, uncharacteristically quiet.

"I'll heal on my own," he reminded her, as if she'd forgotten. She didn't respond, so he forced himself into a seated position and examined the closing wound. It was taking longer than usual, and he wasn't sure how much blood he could afford to lose. He didn't think he needed much to survive. "I shouldn't have hit you." She produced the med kit and returned to the futon, where she sat down by his side and opened the box to inspect the contents.

"You shouldn't have, but you did. That's also not an apology, by the way." She raised her eyes to meet his gaze, then went back to searching the box. She found a new needle for stitches, which she would use on herself, then she found supplies to clean Obito's wound. The blood had to go, and the wound showed no signs of stopping. "I thought we agreed we wouldn't kill Kakashi," she said, finally voicing herself.

Her tone was even, deceptively calm considering how she really felt. Broaching the subject was already a mistake. She focused on the pain again, because while she thrived on arguments and common confrontations, she didn’t feel like marching out into the heat. At least with the overhead fan going, they had some protection from the summer temperatures. She longed for Hanagawa in the fall, when they weren’t hiding out, trying to recover from wounds they shouldn’t bear. As she coaxed him out of his cloak, she waited for him to try to salvage the conversation. They both knew she was angry. She didn’t think there was a way for him to redeem himself. With his cloak gone, he removed his shirt, and she had her first real look at the wound slowly healing itself. They were both chaotic messes.

“Technically, he’s not dead. What he chooses to do now will save him or kill him,” Obito explained, lifting one shoulder for a partial shrug. He touched her nose and she pulled her head back, refusing to let him examine where she’d been hit. Her nose wasn’t broken, so it didn’t matter to her that she had dried blood on her face from where it’d run from her nose, down over her lips, and down her chin. “The seal is gone,” Obito stressed, trying to touch her face again. She slapped his hand aside, so he took her right hand and bent it back until she hissed in pain and punched him in the chest. He tried hitting her again, so she placed her palm over his face and pushed him back onto the futon.

“Just lie there,” she huffed, pushing him down when he tried to sit up. She cleaned the blood from his chest, then she used alcohol swabs to rub the dried blood from his skin, careful not to disturb the healing wound. She was surprised he listened to her, something she attributed to temporary brain damage. In the end, they wanted one another, so they both knew neither of them would desert each other, even after the plans he’d thoroughly wrecked. When she’d finished cleaning the blood away, she bandaged his chest, so it would absorb the blood. “If I ask you to look at my side, are you going to be a dick?” He rolled his eyes at her and turned his back to her, leaving her holding the needle for her stitches. She thought about stabbing him, but she left the futon to sit near the window.

The heat in the room had sweat on her brow, her hands moistened with the same. She unzipped her romper and pushed it down until it rested around her hips. The injury wasn’t terrible, but disturbing the beginning of a scab had blood returning to the surface. Obito had been right to force her to leave the weapon in until they could address her side. Every time she brought the needle to her skin, her right hand shook and she ended up stabbing herself in the wrong area. After several failed attempts, she gave up and leaned against the wall. She’d succeeded in her mission. She told herself she'd succeeded in her mission. It just didn't change how she felt. Her wasted effort at giving herself first aid also irked her. The overhead fan helped with the sweat on her brow, but it did nothing for her simmering frustration. It took her almost an hour before she decided to try suturing her injury again. By then, the wound had stopped bleeding, so she threw the needle across the room and slapped a bandage over the area. It would leave an imperfect scar, but it would fit in with the others.

“Did you take care of the gash?” She thought he would ignore her for the duration of their stay, so she was surprised he spoke to her again. He couldn’t see her when she shrugged her shoulders.

“I gave up. It’s scabbed over now. I really don’t fucking care.” He hummed, then he pushed himself into a seated position and stared at the bandage on her side. It would heal, like his wound would heal. He motioned for her to join him, but she looked at the bloody futon and wrinkled her nose. Without a word, she fixed her romper and left the room to retrieve another. It was difficult to find the owner of the inn, even harder to explain that her companion had bled all over the futon. But she returned with a new futon, struggling with it the entire way, until she dumped it right next to the other one. “You’re welcome,” she frowned, motioning to the crooked futon. He was clearly judging her, but she didn’t care about that either.

“He’s not dead, Kana.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that you tried to stab him in the heart.”

“He put his fist through my chest. Did you think I was going to let that stand? I’m sorry I didn’t kill him. Does that make you feel better?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Kana said, dismissing the words, avoiding another argument. She tried to play nice, but she could only take so much of his attitude. She wanted to go back to enjoying time with him, but he was in one of his bastard phases that did nothing but drive her mad. “I think I can handle another mission,” she lied, flexing her fingers on her right hand. He looked at her hand, then at the tear in her romper. She wasn’t ready, but the mission would occupy her time and keep her mind off of what happened in the Land of Snow. She still chose Obito. She would always choose Obito. He reminded her, even if he didn’t mean to remind her.

“Come here.” The way he said the words, as if he meant to comfort her, to make up for the words he’d just said, had her moving. She sat down beside him and leaned against him, her head resting against his shoulder. He wrapped an arm around her and she relaxed, for the first time in hours. “I’ll start training with you tomorrow, then we’ll go back to Amegakure.”

At that moment, she didn’t mind the rain.

Chapter Text

The giant sandstorm set them back by seven hours, precious time they'd needed to intercept the teams on the journey to Sunagakure. The mission was already more complicated than she’d originally thought. They both knew the chunin exams served as a trap meant to lure Akatsuki into the open, as if they’d been hiding the entire time. The Kazekage was bait, though far from helpless. They’d learned nothing from the failed attempt in Konoha. Triggering a trap didn’t always go as expected, which was why Kana had volunteered to accompany Sasori and Deidara on their mission to capture the one-tailed beast. She didn’t expect Obito to follow her, but he’d planned on it, something that surprised her and pleased her. He’d learned his lesson about leaving her. As they traipsed through the desert, she held her straw hat in place. The bandana she wore kept the sand from her mouth and nose, while the goggles she wore protected her eyes. The sandstorm made it difficult. They had an hour left before the second exam started, and Yura said he couldn’t delay it anymore than he already had, something that had angered Obito.

The preliminaries necessary to weed out more participants had the teams racing to the demon desert, the spot for the second exam. If the sandstorm continued expanding, it would delay the start of the exam, allowing them more time to reach their meeting point with Sasori and Deidara. Kana still wanted nothing to do with Deidara, but she didn’t mind the thought of working with Sasori again. The plan was to create a situation where the Kazekage was forced to step in, opening himself up to an attack. Deidara would likely be the one most useful, out of the two, thanks to his explosion release. Gaara had an ultimate defense that she and Obito had witnessed during the Konoha exams. The young kage’s control over sand gave him a large advantage. More than likely, the duo would threaten participants and force Gaara to hand himself over. A jinchuriki wasn’t invincible, as Kana had already proven, and Gaara had turned into a bleeding heart. Naruto’s way with words was astounding. She wondered if someone like him would ever be able to convince Obito to end Tsuki no Me. She still wanted every ounce of Obito’s attention, even with the ring on her finger.

“I hate this fucking place!”

Kana had to shout over the noise of the sandstorm. When her foot got caught in the sand, she had to stop and yank it free, then she kicked at the spot where she’d been caught, in some attempt to get even with the desert. Obito had to backtrack and take her hand, because the sandstorm had already caused them to get separated more than once, and he’d politely told her that if it happened again, he would leave her for dead. He had such a way with words. Their gloved hands clasped, he pulled her along, until she finally gave up and continued beside him. He’d insisted that his mask offered all the protection he needed, but he’d worn a hat with a cover for his visible eye. Even in the storm, he kept his sharingan activated. He was lucky that the work done on his body negated the impacts of dojutsu overuse—he would have been blind.

He squeezed her hand, so she focused on the numerous chakra signatures in the distance. The exam participants had finally reached the demon desert, and they were still behind. Sasori and Deidara were also running behind, their signatures even farther away. Obito had never been to what was dubbed the demon desert, so they were stuck trying to find their way through the sandstorm. The wind tried to take her hat, but she shoved it down onto her head again and kept hold of the edge with her right hand. When they cleared the sandstorm, she saw nothing but open desert. Gaara was a greater distance away, so Kana focused on Fu. Fu was different from Han. Her chakra reminded Kana of an Aburame, where she recognized the chakra of the bugs. After the sandstorm wrapped up, exposing their advance, Obito let go of her hand.

“There’s a sensor,” she informed him, masking her own presence. Obito didn’t sense in the way that she did, so he investigated a little longer before he pointed at the horizon. The initial sensor was far enough away that they were still hidden, but there was a chakra fluctuation among the exam participants, where Gaara felt as if he were in two places at once. She thought it was a clone checking on the kids, but the amount of chakra in the second location was minimal, a blip on the radar. “It’s strange.” She didn’t know what else to say about the discovery. Before she could properly explain herself, the second chakra signature vanished, and Gaara began to move. “Sasori doesn’t know he’s on the move,” Kana said, avoiding mentioning Deidara’s name, “do you want to go for it?”

She recalled the way Gaara had fought during the final exam, and then the way he looked during the transformation, even if she only saw it from a distance. He’d redeemed himself, in some ways, but he would always be a monster at heart. Kana didn’t understand how he’d made the sudden ascension to Kazekage—she assumed a lot of lying and manipulation was involved.

"It's a trap."

"It's not our trap."

"It's not." Obito stopped moving and surveyed the land in front of them, while she removed her goggles and bandana. With the sandstorm gone, there was no reason for the protection. "This is the perfect opportunity to get Gaara, and someone is interfering. I want everyone involved dead. Can you handle that while I locate Sasori and Deidara?" Kana frowned at the thought of them separating, but she knew she could handle herself. She shrugged her shoulders and continued walking, all the answer he needed. "Don't get yourself killed, Kana."

"Relax. It's a bunch of little kids. I'll slaughter them and lure Gaara farther away. Go find Sasori and your boyfriend."

"You're never going to get over that, are you?"

"Hm. Nope!"

He disappeared into kamui, so she continued alone. Something told her to pick up the pace, so she trusted her gut and began running. Without the sandstorm, she made great time. She wasn't fast enough to reach Gaara before he walked into the trap, so she felt the one-tailed beast being extracted. The sandstorm that had passed her was joined by another overtaking the exam participants. She didn't think she would make it in time. She lost her hat to the wind, so she let it go. She arrived in time to see a single man trying to extract the beasts from Gaara and Fu. The fuinjutsu at work was impressive, something she admitted by whistling in appreciation. Unfortunately, she couldn't let the man succeed.

He was a bald man with a scar running from the left side of his nose, across his cheek, and even onto his left ear. When he noticed her, he watched her approach, both of them wondering how their interaction would go, since they both meant to kill one another. Kana let her sharingan move into the mangekyou, and then to the eternal mangekyou. He frowned when he saw her eyes, so she smiled for him. He tried attacking her and binding her with seals, so she dodged and attacked him with shuriken, forcing him from his place in the sand. Her target was his biwa, where she felt the source of his power. He erected a barrier around himself that fired senbon at her, which she deflected with her wakizashi. The barrier looked solid, and the strength came from the instrument the man played.

She attacked the barrier from multiple sides with flame tigers, but the barrier took the hits and snapped back into place, as if it were alive. Fu had slowed the extraction down with her cocoon, but both jinchuriki had failed to stop the process. Kana slowly walked up to the barrier and examined it, then she hummed. Chakra kept it going.

"You know you can't hide forever, little man, and I can be a very patient person, when I want to be."

"This fight doesn't concern you."

"Actually, it does, and thank you for making eye contact."

Before she could kill him with her technique, three kids came upon them. When the barrier fell, she grabbed the biwa from the man and stomped on it until she broke it into several pieces, then she stabbed the sharpened edge into his stomach until it protruded from his back. Sasori and Deidara wouldn't make it. Faced with fighting two jinchuriki and a Hyuga, she decided to cut her losses. She tried to hit the man again, but Gaara's sand came after her. Neji completely blocked the seals from extracting the bijou, so she cast a large-scale genjutsu on the kids, sent a flaming tiger at Fu, and patiently waited for Gaara to approach her.

"Is this Akatsuki's move?" Gaara looked at the corpse at her feet and she placed her right foot on its back to further grind the body into the sand.

"We had nothing to do with this one, and your time isn't quite up yet," she informed him, shrugging. The Hyuga had broken free of the genjutsu and tried to attack her, but Gaara put up a wall of sand to stop him. "You should discover the rat in your village. Seems like an inside job. Oh, and the next time you try to lay a trap for us, try harder. It's embarrassing."

He tried to catch her with sand, so she channeled lightning chakra to her blade and cut right through it. She could make out her group in the distance, so she waved at Gaara and disappeared in a body flicker. Halfway to her group, she began to feel the chakra signatures leaving the demon desert. They'd called off the rest of the exams. Tobi greeted her by tackling her, where they both crashed onto the sand. Sasori remained silent, used to Tobi's behavior, while Deidara gave Tobi the stink eye.

"Tobi, nobody wants to put up with you. Get up," Deidara huffed, physically dragging Tobi from on top of her. She actually enjoyed her time with Tobi, so she swept Deidara’s legs and the short man landed on his back. "Hey!"

"Your art is garbage," Kana said, feeling the anger in his chakra. He jumped to his feet and proceeded to show her a clay spider that she knew would detonate if she touched it. His art was actually beautiful, in a way, but she would never admit it. She liked insulting him too much. "Unlike you, Sasori knows true art," she added, receiving a proud noise from Sasori. Deidara fumed.

"Fight me!"

"Don't give me the opportunity to kill you."

"Let's be friends now," Tobi spoke up, addressing them both. Kana knew Obito would find some way to make her life miserable, if she ever tried to kill Deidara. Deidara turned his nose up at Tobi, while Kana got to her feet and brushed the excess sand from her cloak. "What happened to the jinchuriki, Kana-chan?"

"Shut up," she muttered, knocking her shoulder against his as she passed. Deidara looked too smug at her dismissal. In the end, Obito knew she'd been outnumbered, and she had no chance at fighting two jinchuriki on her own. "Let's just fucking go."

"Another wasted opportunity," Sasori said, the false voice odd to her ears.

She flipped him off when he wasn't looking.

Chapter Text

Kana landed on her back in the marsh, her body dipping beneath the tepid water. When she sat up, she coughed up a mouthful of the brackish water and scraped the stray plantlife from her head and face. Above her, Obito stood on the twisted roots of a mangrove tree, his focus on something in the distance. She forced herself to her feet and made a disgusted noise in the back of her throat. Without missing a beat, she grabbed one of Obito’s ankles and dragged him into the water with her. He yanked on her hair, so she held up a fist, silently threatening to punch him in the balls. He narrowed his eyes at her and they both returned to the mangrove roots, where they had a slightly better vantage point. Tracking Utakata took them to the most undesirable places. She had nothing to go on but the feel of his chakra and what information they could scrape together from his bingo page. After the war, he’d withdrawn from society and abandoned Kirigakure, and she couldn’t blame him. Outside of a hidden village, life was simpler. She didn’t need to examine her soaked bingo book, but she still looked down at his page. He was young in the photo.

"I don't know why we're playing this cat-and-mouse game, but I'm tired of this shit, Obito. It's been days."

"Patience isn't a word you comprehend, is it?"

"We're about to find out if you can drown."

"He can only run for so long before he has to stop, jinchuriki or not. We're forcing him to the coast, where he'll try to escape the country, putting him out of his comfort zone. He has an advantage here. We're eliminating it," Obito explained, watching her wring the excess water from her hair and pull it into a ponytail. He reached over and plucked a cattail from her hair and she sighed at him. They both knew she understood the plan, but she still hated it. "You smell." He leaned forward and sniffed her, so she shoved him away from her.

"Yeah? Suck it up. You don't smell so great either," she huffed, turning her head in the direction of Utakata. Obito felt the same fluctuation of chakra. The man was pulling on the chakra of his tailed beast to keep going. His stamina was waning. "Naruto is going back to the village soon." It was a subject change, but equally as relevant. Obito started moving again, so she knew he was dodging the conversation. "I know you heard me," she frowned, catching up to him.

"Pein is planning to destroy the village to get to him. I can't say that I disagree with the idea, since I wanted it destroyed over ten years ago," Obito admitted, jumping onto the surface of the water. With no more mangrove roots, Kana followed him and stepped onto the water. The heat and humidity only made her sweat more, and it emphasized the smell of the murky water. "I'm going to assume you want to take part, and I'm going to tell you no. Then you'll disagree, we'll argue about it, we'll devolve into a fist fight, and you'll try to murder me again. Have I covered everything?"

"You're my fiancé. I wouldn't try to murder you," she scoffed, shaking her head at him, even though she knew he was right. He looked over at her for a long moment, then he shoved her to the side and she nearly fell into the water again. "Fucker," she muttered under her breath. She knew he was smirking beneath his mask.

The marshlands gave way to soggy soil that led into a hillside with oddly shaped trees, indicating that the ground was slowly moving, preparing for a mudslide. She grabbed Obito's arm and redirected him so they could avoid the risk. When they reached firm ground again, she felt Utakata slowly moving away from them, until he cleared the shore. Just like Obito said, Utakata was fleeing known territory for somewhere new. With any luck, he would choose a coastal town to stop, giving them time to locate and kidnap him. She stopped tracking him and shook a piece of plantlife from her right sandal, then she wiped the sweat from her forehead. Obito had to make the call to stop, but he seemed set on retracing Utakata's footsteps. He didn't give up until night had fallen. By then, Kana wanted nothing to do with the tropical climate, having decided that her hatred for the Land of Wind was eclipsed by her hatred for the Land of Water.

She thought that they would retreat and use Obito's dimension to travel, but they both felt Zetsu's arrival on the southern island, promising more work for them. Kana still hated the feel of Zetsu's chakra, and knowing that Obito saw the obvious cracks in the creature's facade let her know she wasn't alone. When Sasori and Deidara moved on Gaara, she was going to make a move on a certain sannin and get more info on a seal to truly neutralize Zetsu. So when Zetsu appeared to them, she had a feeling in her gut that they were going to put a hold on the hunt for Utakata and start the process of her secondary mission.

"Naruto will arrive in the village tomorrow morning. Sasori and Deidara are traveling to Suna," Zetsu said, the black portion focused entirely on her. It made her skin crawl, but she refused to look away. "You're very brave for looking so delicious," the black portion said, making her wrinkle her nose in disgust. Obito stepped in front of her, hiding the fact that she'd flipped Zetsu off.

"We'll be at the hideout," Obito promised. The words pleased Zetsu, so the creature left. The lie was simple, delivered without missing a beat. "This better not be a mistake." He looked over his shoulder and she frowned, knowing that he would lose his temper if he went through any difficulties with the loss of Zetsu. He turned and held out his hand to her, which she took, then they left the Land of Water. For the moment, Utakata was safe—Gaara took priority.

In the Land of Fire again, they traveled for half of the night before they were within a few hours of Jiraiya and Naruto. Kana wanted a shower, but the mission to intercept Jiraiya was more important than a shower and a few hours of rest. She’d volunteered to go alone, knowing that Obito’s presence would only complicate matters. Going alone proved she wasn’t present to capture Naruto, and would tip the odds in her favor. She planned on getting information on a seal, even if she had to torture the information out of him. In the end, his life meant nothing to them, even if the lecher could play prince charming rather well. Naruto would eventually get over the loss of his mentor, but even that didn’t matter. Everything would be resolved in death.

They stopped beside the Naka River, where it separated into two rivers that fed into the sea. Obito started a fire, while Kana went to wash some of the stench of the marshland off of herself. She had to look presentable, because her looks had to take her somewhere. While she bathed, Obito sat on the shore and watched her. He had no one to impress, and the extraction wouldn’t take place for at least another day and a half. He would get time to have a decent meal, a long shower, and a good night’s sleep, unlike her. In the heat of summer, her dip in the cold river felt great. After she’d bathed, she stayed in the water and swam around for a bit. She tried to lure Obito into the water, but he shook his head at her. He was likely going through disaster plans, listing off numerous things that could go wrong, and solving every possible problem. He’d grown into a perfectionist, something brought on by anxiety and stress. To distract him, she splashed him.

“Everything will work out, like it always does. Sasori isn’t an amateur, and Deidara is, well, himself,” Kana tried to comfort him. He snorted at her attempt to compliment Deidara. She believed in Sasori, and she knew that the duo would pull off the mission. If something did go wrong, like it went wrong during the chunin exams, they would correct the error and try again. There was no need to plan every tiny detail, even ones insignificant. “You know, I might have to sweet talk Jiraiya,” Kana said, trying to distract him. He didn’t say anything, which only encouraged her to bait him a little more. “I might even have to sleep with him,” she continued, a small smirk forming.

He got to his feet, and she thought he was going to walk away, but he slipped off his sandals and removed his cloak. She didn’t think he had to spine to strip down, like she did, but he proved her wrong. She watched him undress and set his clothes and mask aside, then he waded into the cold water. He reached her and she leaned in to kiss him, but he dunked her head underwater. When she surfaced, he was washing himself, as if he'd done nothing wrong. She splashed him again, then turned her back to him. They were alone in the forest, with the beginning of a full moon overhead, the perfect kind of night to get lost in, and she had to think about seducing some dumb fuck. She’d teased Obito, but she wasn’t above sleeping with Jiraiya. Getting rid of Zetsu meant that much to her. She thought that if she eliminated him, she would avoid any devious plans the thing had. Because it was obvious that Zetsu had some ulterior motive. He didn’t benefit from world peace, and he didn’t benefit from the war. He had no obvious reason to help Obito. And she didn't buy that Black Zetsu was Madara's will embodied.

She dipped underwater and swam over to Obito. The current wasn’t strong there, and there were no rocks like the ones that littered the section of river running through Konoha. She surfaced near him and prodded his left cheek with her index finger, pulling him from his thoughts again. He caught her finger and held onto it, so she swam closer and kissed his cheek.

“You were joking,” he finally said, shifting the focus from the upcoming extraction. She laughed and he dunked her head underwater again. As she resurfaced, she spat the water from her mouth and tried to swim away, but he dragged her closer. “You were joking,” he repeated, as if she needed to hear the words a second time. She smiled at the obvious jealousy, choosing not to grace him with a response. Irritating him was a successful way to distract him from his other problems, even if it meant an argument. She felt fiery enough to start something. “If it comes to that, I want you to abandon the mission. He’s disgusting.”

“You know he’s funny. Ladies like humor in a man.”

“You’re doing this on purpose to piss me off.”

“At least I distracted you.” He released his hold on her, the tension bleeding away. She could tell she’d surprised him, because his scowl was replaced with a thoughtful expression. Either way, he looked grumpy, but she knew the difference. “If it comes up, I’ll drug him, but he doesn’t always think with his dick. I know it’s shocking.” He cracked a smile, so she patted his cheek and headed to shore. It was a nice night, even with the heat, and she knew that Jiraiya was likely out enjoying himself, leaving Naruto waiting alone. It was the perfect time to strike.

She stored her dirty clothes in a scroll and changed into a clean romper. She had another cloak, but she chose not to wear it. People knew the cloak meant trouble, and the last time she’d been in Tanzaku-gai was when they destroyed part of the town. She was noticeable enough with her hair; she didn’t need the added attention from her cloak. When Obito swam to shore, he changed into clean clothes, then they stood together. It had been a while since they’d separated, so it felt too much like a goodbye. She squeezed his gloved hands in hers, and it was all the goodbye they shared. As she walked away, she felt his chakra shift and knew he’d disappeared into kamui. She felt the moment he returned and counted the distance between them, then she felt Zetsu hovering near the border, slowly making his way in her direction, like he knew what she had planned. Before he reached her, he changed course, but it was too late. He knew she was doing something behind his back. He knew Obito was plotting something unrelated to Tsuki no Me.

After she arrived in Tanzaku-gai, she didn't need to feel for Jiraiya's chakra. She heard his boisterous laughter coming from an izakaya on main street. He had two scantily clad women with him, one sitting on his lap and the other sitting to his right. His flushed cheeks and glassy eyes spoke of too much sake. He was drunk enough to have a good time and forget it in the morning. She hoped his fuinjutsu skills still existed in his state, because she didn't think she'd have another opportunity to approach him unless she broke into the village, and that didn't sound like a good time. Kakashi and Tenzo weren't dead, and they both wanted her head. She'd calmed down, since the last time they'd met. It was easier to pretend they'd both died. It kept her inner rage in check.

"Are you here for the kid?" Jiraiya saw her lurking near the izakaya, so she stepped under the overhang and claimed the seat to his left. Instead of answering, she ordered a plum and sake mixed drink. The woman on his lap got to her feet and motioned for the other woman to follow her, leaving Kana and Jiraiya alone. "It's not a coincidence that you're here. Are you looking for a fight?"

"In your condition? The alcohol slows your reaction time and impairs your judgment and overall coordination. You'd lose," she informed him, watching the two women venture to another izakaya. He frowned at her accurate description of their possible fight, because he couldn't argue against facts. She was still sober. His drunkenness wasn't an act. "I'm here for a bit of a favor, one I'm willing to trade for." She accepted her finished drink and took a sip, then she admired the way the cocktail looked.

"I'm listening." She could smell the alcohol on his breath as he turned towards her. He rested a hand on her thigh that she chose to ignore. He nudged the remainder of his sake away from him, so the bartender took the cup away. "What do you want, and what can you offer me? I already know most of the members of Akatsuki, and I know your aim. Maybe you could spill some secrets for me?"

"I want to seal Zetsu away. I need a seal strong enough to hold him indefinitely. He doesn't play well with others."

"You're turning on another member? How do you know I won't make up something that doesn't work and benefit from this exchange anyway?"

"Because we're going to test it before I leave this shit hole. I can offer you another year with no movement on Naruto. That's in good faith. If the seal works, I'll tell you one secret."

"How generous. I want the name and location of the leader of the organization," Jiraiya said, lightly rubbing her thigh. She thought about stabbing his hand, but she focused on his request. Pein wasn't a big name, not even in Amegakure. The village knew Konan. And the location was something easily obtained, if he knew the right people, but Akatsuki had been spreading misinformation since before the hunt for jinchuriki. "I think that's fair."

"I think you'd prefer what I'm willing to offer you. It would benefit you a lot more. But if you want something so simple," she trailed off, shrugging. She'd piqued his interest, so much that he stopped rubbing her thigh. She focused on her drink while he mulled over possibilities. She meant to tell him that they were going to destroy the village, but not when, and not how, things she didn't know herself. Maybe it was arrogance, but she felt that the group really was unstoppable. "It concerns your stupid village and every little peon in it."

"You're going to delay our arrival," Jiraiya sighed, his hand traveling higher. She took the tiny umbrella from her drink and stabbed him with the dull end, so he pulled his hand back. "Still no chance in hell, huh?" She sent him an unimpressed look, then finished off her drink. She didn't order another. "Taking care of Zetsu means one less member, so I accept. The seal is going to take time. I'll need a stabilizer, a trigger, a container, and that's not something I can whip up in a few hours. For instance, do you want him dead or alive?"

"I'm not picky, and you shouldn't underestimate your abilities. I came to you for a reason. I believe you can do this, and you're easier to work with than Orochimaru." Jiraiya didn't like hearing the man's name. She saw him closing himself off, so she placed a hand on his cheek to draw him back to their conversation. "If you need more time, take more time. Naruto can put up with a little delay, and I consider myself a very patient person." She lightly patted his cheek, then she withdrew her hand. He laughed at her description of herself, because he knew about her volatility. "Let me get you another drink." Her smile was disarming, even though he wasn't stupid enough to fall for it.

"I think I've had more than enough."

"How about a room?"

Chapter Text

Kana sat on the edge of the bathtub and contemplated her next move. As expected, Jiraiya had agreed to share a hotel room with her, and she'd specifically requested a room with one bed. He'd made a show of seducing her, groping her ass and squeezing her breasts in public, but he wasn't drunk enough to reveal Naruto’s location. It was silly of him to think he was protecting Naruto, when he'd been noticeably absent during Naruto's childhood. She'd told him once that she would always know where they were, and she'd meant it. Maybe he'd really forgotten. Maybe he liked to play games.

She'd picked up sake on their way to the hotel room, and he'd enjoyed a drink or two on their way to the hotel. Hopefully, he'd dipped into the alcohol again. She didn't want to sleep with the man, but he was drunk enough to think he really had a chance. The sedative she'd slipped into his sake took time to work, so it was a waiting game. She planned on stripping him and putting him to bed, then she planned on enjoying the rest of the evening. He would wake up and think they'd slept together, and he would count her as another notch in his proverbial bed post. She'd taken a shower and changed into her night shirt, but she kept the shower running, pretending she was still freshening up for the longest time imaginable. But her trick didn't work, because he'd grown tired of waiting. He turned the doorknob to try and gain entry to the bathroom, then he tried knocking.

"Can I join you?"

"I'm almost done."

"You said that twenty minutes ago, beautiful."

She gritted her teeth and turned the shower off, then she counted down the seconds to pretend she was drying off and dressing herself. He tried the doorknob again, then she heard a loud thump, one that startled her. She unlocked the bathroom door and cracked it, then she saw him sprawled out on the floor, one hand poised to knock. He was a large man, so it had taken a larger dose of the sedative, and it had still taken too long. She nudged his chest with her right foot and he let out a loud snore that had her wrinkling her nose. She stepped over his body, then she grabbed his legs and dragged him toward the bed. He'd left his boxers on, so she had to dump him into bed and remove them. As she put him into bed, he grabbed her right arm and dragged her onto the bed with him, where he curled up on his side and held her to his chest.

"Jiraiya?" He didn't respond to her soft voice, so she replaced herself with a pillow and watched the man snuggle up to it, a little giggle following. She didn't want to look at him, so she turned her head away as she removed his boxers. In the morning, with a little mental prodding, he would think he'd had the best night of his life, and she would give him snippets of false memories to cement the narrative. "Huh. Not bad. No wonder women still bother with you," she whistled. She'd given in and took a peek at his cock, which was longer than she'd thought and subtly curved upwards. After that, she covered him up and worked on the genjutsu.

"Hey! Open up, ero-sennin! I know you're in there. You were supposed to bring back food over three hours ago!" Naruto pounded on the hotel door and broke her concentration, but she'd done enough to call it a job well done. She thought he'd go away, but Naruto had always been an annoying brat. He'd never outgrown childish behaviors. "Are you with some lady? You left me for some hooker again, didn't you? Tch. I'm not going to leave until you answer the damn door! You have all of my money!"

Kana closed her eyes and massaged her right temple, because his voice was grating and the noise of his fist repeatedly slamming against the door got on her last nerve. Since Jiraiya had Naruto’s money, Kana left her spot on the side of the bed and went to search Jiraiya's belongings. She found a wallet with some ryo in it, so she took part of it for herself and walked over to the door. Naruto was in the middle of knocking when she opened the door, so she had to catch his fist to avoid being punched in the face. He took a step back when he saw her red eyes, then his gaze dropped down to her bare legs and his cheeks turned red. She took one of his hands, turned it palm up, and dropped his wallet into his hand.

"Hey! Wait!" He shoved his foot near the door frame to keep her from shutting the door in his face, so she opened it again. "What did you do to him? Where is he? If you hurt him!" She stepped aside so Naruto could see Jiraiya hugging a pillow. The rest of the teen’s words were gone, and that blush reappeared. "Uh, um, I thought," he trailed off, rubbing the back of his head. "I guess you two are close now?"

"Very. Did you want to join us?" She asked him to further embarrass him, and it worked. He looked in every direction but at her, until he glanced down at her bare legs again. "Listen, it's late. Get yourself something to eat and go to bed. I've got him. The drunk bastard is going to sleep it off, and you'll be reunited at a decent hour. So fuck off," she said, closing the door on his foot. He shouted in pain and pulled his leg back, so she slammed and locked the door. She stood at the door until he finally got tired of muttering and went to get himself food.

"Mm, you feel so good," Jiraiya said, curling up around the pillow. He groped the pillow and giggled in his sleep, so she shook her head at him, grabbed the second pillow, and made herself a bed on the floor with the top blanket.

She fell asleep to his dirty talk, and woke up hours later to the sound of him vomiting in the bathroom. Turning onto her back, she stared at the ceiling until he stopped and started moaning in pain. The sedative likely left him with dry mouth and an upset stomach, and he probably attributed it to the alcohol, which worked in her favor. Instead of checking on him, she changed her clothes. When she heard the toilet flush, she had her romper on and zipped. He returned to the room and looked at her makeshift bed, then the clothing she wore. He looked like he wanted to try to seduce her again, to continue with the genjutsu and memories he had of sleeping with her, but he turned and rushed back into the bathroom, where he resumed vomiting.

"Hurry up. And brush your teeth too. I smell you in here."

"I showed you a good time and you treat me this way?"

"Your dick isn't good enough to alter my personality."

She sat down on the bottom of the bed and waited for him to finish and brush his teeth. When he returned to the room, he had a hand on his stomach. He frowned at her, then he went to his belongings and checked that she hadn't taken anything from him. He wouldn't find the wallet, so she waited for him to notice its absence and accuse her of robbing him. He put a hand over his face and slowly turned to face her. She had one leg crossed over the other, and she was drumming her fingers on her thigh.

"Naruto stopped by. You were supposed to take him food, but you spent most of his money on alcohol and pretty women. Shame on you," she sneered at him. She saw the moment when he remembered Naruto, so she held up her hands. "Relax. I gave him his wallet back and told him to fuck off. He's fine. I told you I'd give you more time. My word still means something, occasionally," she shrugged. His shoulders lowered when his anger faded, then he groaned. She wanted Naruto to pound on the door again to make him suffer a little more.

"Stay here. I want to check on him."

"Maybe you should put some more clothes on for that, unless you want to walk around in your underwear. For being an older man, you still look good, so I can't say it would be a bad thing."

"Right. Clothes. I'm never drinking that much again. I barely remember last night."

"That's a shame. We had a great time," she smiled, the hidden meaning in her expression saved for herself. He smirked at her, clearly remembering some of the details she'd planted in his head. She'd given him a good time, even without touching him. She didn't expect him to pivot on his heel and approach her. "Nope. One and done," she said, pointing at the door. He opened his mouth to disagree with her, then he went to dress himself.

"Just stay here. I don't want you around him." Jiraiya finished dressing himself and went to the door, where he slipped on his shoes. He looked back at her, then he left and slammed the door behind himself. She sat on the bed and followed his chakra, then she signaled to Obito in code with her chakra. When Jiraiya returned, he had more belongings for working on fuinjutsu. "If you want my help, you're going to watch and learn. If I can teach Naruto, I can teach you."

"Enlighten me, oh great toad sage," she sarcastically replied. Halfway through him explaining the basic setup, she gave up and decided to paint her nails. They worked better that way. So when Naruto barged into their room, he saw Jiraiya actually working and her blowing on her fingernails. "Do you want your nails painted?"

"Oh. It's you again. This is the work you had to do, ero-sennin?"

"I told you to stay put! She's dangerous, Naruto!"

"She answered the door in her underwear. How is that dangerous?"

"To be fair, I had a shirt on, and I invited you inside, so my manners are impeccable," she said, finishing with her nails. Jiraiya threw one of the pillows at her and she batted it aside. Naruto eyed her again, so she rolled her eyes at him. "Close the door. The air conditioner is on. We're not cooling the outside," she said, the words mimicking the ones her father used to say to her. Against Jiraiya's wishes, Naruto remained in the room and closed the door.

"Are you still with Akatsuki?" Naruto sat down next to Jiraiya and examined the complex layout of the base for the seal. The scroll Jiraiya was using was large, the size of it necessary for what it needed to hold. "You aren't wearing that weird cloak."

"Yes, I'm still with Akatsuki. I didn't wear the cloak because I was luring your ero-sennin into bed, which worked. How old are you now, Naruto?" She was purposely messing with him to aggravate Jiraiya. Naruto looked down at her chest, then he found something interesting on the far wall.

"Don't answer that. Don't even talk to her."

"Aw, Jiraiya, I'm just teasing him. He's jailbait, aren't you, kid?"

"Leave him alone or the deal is off."

"Pft. Fine," she dismissed him, waving him off with a hand. She felt Obito's chakra, a signal that he'd reached the hideout in the Land of Rivers. That left Sasori and Deidara to complete the mission. They were still a day or two out, likely delayed by bad weather. "How's Sasuke?"

"Don't even say his name!" Naruto got to his feet and pointed at her, his hand shaking with his anger. He remembered how poorly she'd treated Sasuke, which made her smile. She glanced at Jiraiya, wondering if she should press her luck.

"You sound like you have a crush on that loser. I bet you dream about him. Are they wet dreams, Naruto?" She smirked as the boy simmered with rage. Before he could feed into an argument, Jiraiya stepped in.

"Enough. Naruto, get out," Jiraiya said, not looking up from his scroll. Naruto looked crushed, and she hid a snicker by turning her head away. Naruto opened his mouth to argue with his mentor, but he gave up and left. "Sasuke is a sore subject. He loses control. I know you saw the scar on my chest. That's what happens when Naruto loses control."

"Sounds like a good time." He looked over at her and she wiggled her fingers at him. She'd spent time with Tobi and it encouraged her to have a little fun. "So you want to try explaining that shit to me again?"

"Get over here." He sighed and made room for her at his side, so she joined him on the floor, where she sat in seiza and admired his work. The beginning of the seal made perfect sense to her, but every brush stroke complicated it. "How could you do the things you've done?" She looked at his profile while he continued working.

"I could ask you the same thing. How could you wipe a whole village off the map without blinking? Why is that any different from the things I've done? Because you do it for your village? Because it's just orders? You killed innocent people. You aren't on any moral high ground. You're in no position to judge me. No one in that fucking village can judge me."

"You're right. I'm not in position to judge you. I take full responsibility for the things I've done, and the things I will do. In the end, we both ran away."

She'd never heard truer words. She knew exactly how to run away.

Chapter Text

The seal looked like a piece of fine art, with delicate brushwork and intricate details interwoven throughout. Kana stood over the scroll and examined the seal with her sharingan, looking for any inconsistencies that would result in failure. She saw the area dedicated to containment and noted that Jiraiya had created a pocket space with impossible dimensions, one that would result in death for an ordinary person, one that offered security against Zetsu’s escape. Every part of the seal seemed functioning, and she couldn’t detect any traps built into it in some attempt to take out the user. Jiraiya stood behind her, his hands resting on her shoulders, clearly proud of the work he’d produced. She hummed and her sharingan faded. He squeezed her shoulders and she glanced in his direction before she nodded. Destroying the scroll would trap Zetsu in the pocket dimension. The seal was everything she needed, if it worked. She opened her mouth to demand that they test the seal, but Naruto kicked in the hotel door and waved an open scroll in the air, his loud voice drowned out by the explosion of fireworks.

“Calm down, kid. Give me the scroll,” Jiraiya said, holding his hand out to Naruto. Naruto looked between the two of them, then slapped the scroll into Jiraiya’s open palm. Before Naruto could get a view of the seal, Kana carefully rolled up the large scroll and leaned it against the wall. She heard the sound of paper wrinkling as Jiraiya closed his fist around the scroll. “Was this a distraction? Akatsuki is attacking Sunagakure,” Jiraiya frowned, turning to her with anger in his narrowed eyes. She held up her palms in defense, then she felt Obito’s chakra disappear and reappear. Tobi knocked on the door, greeting them all with an excited wave.

“This wasn’t a distraction. Testing the seal will take minutes. If it works, I’ll provide information. If it doesn’t, I’m gone. If you’d rather run off and save Naruto’s boyfriend,” Kana trailed off, inching toward the scroll containing the seal. Naruto saw red, forcing Jiraiya to try and calm the boy down. She sent Obito a look, but he didn’t read the intention, because he lightly tapped his chin at her. “Tobi,” she hissed, motioning with her eyes to the scroll at her back. By then, Jiraiya realized that she’d meant to leave without fulfilling her end of the deal, so he stepped in front of her and cut off Obito’s view. “Great fucking job,” she mumbled under her breath.

“It seems like Tobi interrupted a sleepover! Tobi loves sleepovers!” Obito’s chakra and Tobi’s cheery voice didn’t match.

“Yeah. ‘Sleepover’ is accurate,” Naruto muttered, glaring daggers at Jiraiya. Naruto snatched the scroll from Jiraiya’s hand and stormed out of the hotel room, shoving Tobi aside as he went. Obito stepped out of the room to watch Naruto leave the second floor of the hotel, then he stepped back into the room. Downstairs, another door slammed shut, signaling that Naruto had made it back to his room. She had a sinking feeling that Obito thought the same thing. His jealousy was almost palpable.

“Did Kana-chan have a nice sleepover while Tobi was gone?” Knowing the kind of white-hot anger Obito could express had her refusing to move. She knew exactly what it felt like to lose control. She didn’t feel like fighting for her life. Jiraiya missed the undertone that she heard, or he would have suspected there was more between them. Even without killing intent, Obito’s chakra was suffocating. “It’s time to go home now, Kana-chan,” Tobi informed her, almost sing-song with the words. Her stomach was in knots. She crossed her arms over her chest and enjoyed the safety in Jiraiya’s shadow.

“We need to test the seal, Tobi,” Kana frowned, one hand reaching behind herself to touch the scroll. Jiraiya retrieved it, easily slipping it onto his back with a strap securing it in place. Tobi gasped, as if Jiraiya’s show of strength truly surprised him, then he stepped aside to allow Jiraiya to leave the room. Kana had a brief opening to sneak past him, but he blocked the doorway again. “We need to test the damn seal,” Kana insisted, still not moving from her spot.

“Then test it,” Tobi said, motioning for her to walk by him. She shied away from his touch as she slipped between his body and the doorway. She turned back to grab her sandals, but Tobi held them out to her. “Here you go!” Jiraiya waited at the top of the stairs for them, so she grabbed her sandals and slipped them on. Obito waited for her to start walking, then he followed her, leaving her boxed in. She saw a physical altercation and a screaming match in their future, but she was determined to get the seal. Getting rid of Zetsu mattered. She repeated the words like a mantra.

Jiraiya wanted to find a criminal, someone with nothing to contribute to the world, but it wasn’t his choice. Obito grabbed a man walking by them and shoved the man in Jiraiya’s direction, ending the search for the perfect test subject. The dimensions of the containment area would kill the man, because it wasn’t meant for containing a living person. Zetsu was different. Maybe Kana should have felt bad for the man, but she didn’t. Jiraiya closed his eyes as he unrolled the scroll. When the symbols on the paper spread across the ground and began to climb up the man’s legs, the uncontrollable screaming had Jiraiya turning his head away. She watched the whole display in awe. The symbols crawled up the man’s legs, sliding over his clothing until they reached his head, then they began to glow. The symbols were drawn back to the blank scroll, where they began to appear on the paper. As they traveled, they condensed, crushing the man alive. Blood went in every direction as the man was smashed against the paper. He glowed blue, the screams stopped, and nothing remained but the pristine scroll and the fading color of the symbols.

“There,” Jiraiya announced, rolling up the scroll again. He held out the scroll to Obito, but Obito made no move to collect it. Jiraiya helped Kana strap it to her back, then he waited for her to feed him the information she’d promised him. She didn’t know how much she was willing to reveal with the true leader of Akatsuki present, but a deal was a deal, and the information would eventually leak. “Kana,” Jiraiya frowned, his patience clearly thin. She looked up at him and he brushed some stray hair behind her right ear, further damning her.

“We’re going to reduce your village to dust. There isn’t a set time, but that’s the plan. We’re going to kill everyone inside,” Kana informed him, breaking eye contact. His expression turned grim, but he nodded. She thought he would leave, maybe try to start a fight that he would lose, but he stayed. “Aren’t you supposed to run off and play hero now? Naruto’s boyfriend isn’t going to save himself. Trust me.” There was some humor in her voice, but he didn’t buy her act. She felt Obito’s gaze burning right through them. She didn’t want him to reach a breaking point.

“I can’t convince you to run off with me?”

“We both know you’re in love with Tsunade.”

“I can really pick them.”

He looked back at Obito, then he stepped around her and went back to the hotel. Kana didn’t watch him walk away, because she didn’t want to take her eyes off of Obito. He watched Jiraiya leave, silently counting down the seconds until they were alone. When Jiraiya turned the corner and entered into the town’s limits, Obito turned his narrowed gaze on her, and she took a step back at the mere intensity. He was furious, and she choked on an inhale when he conveyed his feelings through his chakra. The killing intent was like poison, slowly spreading and forcing the air she needed from her lungs. She didn’t have her wakizashi, which would have given her a better chance of defending herself. He grabbed her chin and she stared into his blazing sharingan, as if he could sweep her into the same hellish landscape that was Itachi’s playground. They maintained eye contact for several seconds, then he released her chin and held out a hand, silently motioning for her to lead the way.

By the time they reached the hotel, Jiraiya and Naruto were gone. As Kana packed her belongings away, Obito waited by the door, where he had a view of the remaining fireworks. The long silence did nothing to help her upset stomach. His chakra had depths that reminded her of the sea, where a current could wash her away from shore. The passing of time did nothing to dull his anger. It didn’t matter how long he let her stew in silence. The fight was inevitable. She finished with her belongings and he took her wakizashi, putting it on his back so that she could bear the weight of the heavy scroll. The scroll was too bulky, and it made her feel off balance, but she kept her complaints to herself. Obito didn’t believe in the mission, so she had to follow through on her own. She was doing the right thing, but repeating the words to herself didn’t make her feel any better. Outside, Obito tipped his head back to catch the last two fireworks, then they were overwhelmed with the cheers of townsfolk.

“Was he a decent fuck?”

“I didn’t sleep with him.”

“Really?” Kana gritted her teeth and refused to look in his direction, because she knew she would lose her temper and make matters worse. He hummed, then he reached over to pat the large scroll on her back. The fact that he didn’t address her information exchange told her that he was waiting until they cleared Tanzaku-gai to confront her. He ran a gloved hand over her hair, light petting that fueled her growing anxiety. She didn’t have Jiraiya there anymore. “You can talk to me,” he assured her, the words sending a chill down her spine.

“Nothing happened,” Kana insisted, stepping away from him. His hand fell, then he looked at the spot where she once stood. “Nothing happened, Obito,” she repeated, slapping his hand away when he tried to touch her again. Every time he touched her, she stepped away or swatted his hand aside, knowing that his open hand could easily become a closed fist. He looped an arm around her waist and she tried to shove him away from her, but he took them into kamui. She stumbled on her feet and moved away from him, trying to keep the distance between them, even though he seemed perfectly calm. “It was an easy exchange. I used my mangekyou and a genjutsu to make him think we slept together. The information I shared makes no difference," she tried to explain, met with silence.

"It makes no difference to you," he corrected her. She couldn't argue against his words, so she didn't try. He backed her up to the very edge of their stone platform, then he caressed her right cheek. "Take off the scroll, or I'll cut it off of you." She looked down to judge the length of the fall, but the concrete below them looked unforgiving. "Do you want to see if you'll survive the fall?" They both looked down, and he reached the same conclusion. If she survived, she would be injured.

He cut through the strap securing the scroll to her back and the weight of the scroll took it right to the lower level, where it slammed into the concrete and unrolled. She turned to jump down, but he caught her waist and dragged her backwards, taking her farther from the edge. She elbowed him, but he took the hit with a grunt and hooked his arm around her throat, holding her against him. When she stopped fighting, he loosened his hold on her. Something told her she would never see the scroll again, and it made her want to fight again. She lifted her right leg and tried to kick him in the knee, but he moved his leg and squeezed her throat with his left hand. She slipped her fingers between his hand and her throat to fight for air, while he began to unzip her romper.

There were some training scenarios kunoichi went through that were unique to them, and one revolved around sexual assault. She'd yawned through the whole lesson, because she was the best fighter in her class, and no one could take her. When they had to act out what they'd learned, she'd won against every classmate, and that lesson was forgotten in favor of better things. She tried squirming and elbowing and leaning back into him. With her gloves on, she couldn't scratch him, but she still tried. Her mind jumped to other things, in an attempt to escape when she couldn't physically escape. Except he didn't touch her. He released his hold on her and she tipped forward and fell onto her hands and knees. He was looking for marks on her neck or chest.

"He didn't touch me, you dick!"

"You still smell like his cheap cologne."

"Fuck you. I want to leave. Get me out of here."

"You know, I think you need another sleepover."

She glared at him, then he left her there. She sat there in disbelief, silently waiting for him to return, but he didn't. The next person to enter kamui was Kakashi, and she quickly turned her back to him to zip up her romper. He'd already seen her, and he clearly thought the worst. He didn't try to approach her, so she snuck a quick peek over her shoulder.

"I didn't think I'd be interrupting," Kakashi began, his voice sweet to her ears. She clung to her hatred for him as she forced herself to her feet. He looked around the dimension, clearly searching for Obito, so she snorted. It was always about Obito. "Where is he?"

"He fucking left me here. How the hell should I know?" She spat the words at him, her anger for the treatment misplaced. After she spoke, he left, trapping her in kamui again.

She didn't know how long she spent there. Time worked differently in kamui. It felt like ages before Obito returned for her. When he did, he found her on the lower level, nursing a fractured ankle. She held the scroll to herself, but he didn't try to take it from her. He nudged her injured ankle with the toe of his right sandal, then he pinched her thigh when she tried to punch him.

"If I fix this for you, are you going to play nice?"

"You made me think you were going to sexually assault me. Go fuck yourself. I'll figure it out."

"I don't need to force myself on you, so that's your own fault. Be angry and uncooperative another time. The extraction is being interrupted. How would you like to kill Sasuke?"

Chapter Text

"Do you honestly think I'd cheat on you?"

"If you thought you were helping me, yes."

"Do you want me to strip?"

"Later. We're killing kids right now."

She clicked her tongue at him, cutting off a snide remark that would incite him. They separated at the entrance to the cave. While he went to locate Deidara, she chose to assist Sasori, not that the man really needed her assistance. He was fighting a little girl and a decrepit old woman. The problem was Sasuke, and her arrival held his attention. She reached for the wakizashi on her back, while he drew his tanto and charged it with lightning chakra. He'd grown into himself, but he hadn't outgrown his arrogance. She thought he would run right into battle, but he let her make the first move. She checked on Sasori, then she baited Sasuke into leaving the cave, allowing them the space they would need to fight. She recalled the fact that Kakashi had taught Sasuke all about lightning release, specifically chidori, which was exciting.

She used a body flicker to stab him in the back, but he pivoted on his heel and blocked with his tanto. She channeled wind into her blade and swung hard enough to send him skidding back two steps. In a battle of strength, he had the upper hand, but she was faster. Their blades connected over and over, until they locked them and fought for dominance. He put all of his strength into forcing her backwards, so she kicked him in the knee and slashed at his throat. He jumped backwards to avoid her blow, but he hesitated to put his full weight on his left leg. She hoped she did permanent damage. Poison escaped through the opening of the cave, so they put more distance between them and the fight taking place inside. Sasuke gathered lightning to his left hand, his blade still clasped in his right hand.

He wasn't Kakashi, and she was beyond freezing up at the introduction of lightning, so she felt confident that she could handle him. He meant to lock blades, eliminating the use of her right hand, and impale her with lightning, which was smart, but she kept him at a distance with an air bullet. He dodged her attack and ran forward, his speed and precision forcing her to use her sharingan to follow his movements. In the end, he was no Shisui, so she saw his path and motions clearly. He tried to impale her, but she kicked him in the gut and sent him stumbling backwards. With a quick motion of her wrist, she tried to slash him across his eyes, but he pulled back to avoid the blow.

His fighting skills were impressive, to the point where she genuinely enjoyed their battle. He tried punching her, but he pulled the punch to avoid having his hand severed at the wrist. She laughed when he realized long distance fighting was his best chance. He sheathed his tanto and threw shuriken at her that she deflected with her blade. The wind chakra on her blade cut right through two of the weapons.

"You're nothing, compared to your brother. Aren't you supposed to be a prodigy? You're pathetic. Come at me. Stop running!" She made the sign for earth release and stomped her foot on the ground, splitting the earth for jagged rocks to emerge. The following earth wave forced him to plant his feet and wait for the ground to stop moving. He was biding his time, but she was impatient. He wasn't going to her, so she went for him.

He nearly slit her throat with a kunai, which had her smirking. In close proximity, she let him connect with her cloak, even as she dodged. He thought he had her numerous times. He didn't expect her to take a kunai to the gut to rip his left eye out of its socket. Her nails scratched above and below his eye. He covered his empty eye socket as she crushed his eye in her left hand. When they separated, he tried to stop the blood flow. She tugged the kunai from her body and threw it back at him, where it hit him in the left shoulder. He was too accustomed to two eyes. The sound of fighting came to a sudden stop, just as Sasori's chakra cut off. He'd lost to a little girl and a woman far past her prime. With chakra signatures returning to the cave, Kana tried to close the distance between Sasuke and herself, but Sakura interrupted their fight.

Kana cut off part of Sakura's hair, then the girl tried to land a punch that fractured the ground. That was a problem. Outnumbered, Kana sheathed her blade and considered her options. The extraction was a success and Gaara was dead. Although she wanted to completely blind Sasuke, she congratulated herself for destroying one of his eyes. She thought about staying and confronting Kakashi, but she sensed two teams in total. With the one tail in their possession, she decided to escape. She sent a wall of wind that sent both teens flying, then she used a body flicker to leave. When she had some distance between the group and herself, she felt for Obito's chakra and signaled to him. He arrived and they left together.

"You're covered in blood," Obito greeted her, giving her a once over. She prodded the injury on her stomach, then looked at the blood staining both of her gloved hands. She looked like she'd lost the fight. "Sasori is dead. We need to retrieve his body, at some point, or at least the ring. You were supposed to help him. Now what am I supposed to do?" He sounded angry, and she couldn't blame him. She should have checked on Sasori; she should have done more. She didn't know what to say to him, beyond an apology she refused to voice.

"Is Deidara dead?"

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

"I ripped Sasuke’s left eye out and crushed it in my hand. I enjoyed myself," she shrugged as they surfaced from kamui. He released her and walked in the direction of Deidara’s chakra, so she trailed after him. "We can take the three tails and cut Deidara out of the equation entirely," she offered, thinking she was being generous. He didn't look back at her, so she knew he was giving her the silent treatment. She shook her head at him and tripped over a severed arm.

"Senpai! Oh! An arm!" Tobi made his grand appearance and collected a second arm from the grass. Kana thought about catching the arm at her feet on fire, but she grimaced and picked it up, holding it by two fingers. "Look!" Tobi waved the arm he held, so she flipped him off with the arm she had. "That's not very nice, Kana-chan. Let's see if we can find more of senpai." Tobi bent down to collect Deidara’s head, but Deidara yelled at him. Tobi separated a bush to find the remainder of Deidara. She was disappointed. Tobi gasped and offered the arm he held to Deidara, as if the teen could take it from him, then he realized his mistake and tried to put the arm in Deidara’s mouth. “Are you missing anything else? Maybe something underneath your clothes? Tobi would be happy to check on you, senpai. Say the word,” Tobi exclaimed, giggling like a schoolgirl. Kana frowned at his display and slapped Deidara in the face with his own arm.

“You’re useless without your arms. Can you even stand up without them, you piece of shit?”

“Come a little closer and find out, hm!”

“I’m not going to flirt with you like Tobi does. I’ll beat you to death with your own arm.”

He swept her legs out from under her and they had a brief scuffle, while Tobi gasped and gave them some distance. Deidara tried to strangle her with his thighs, so she punched him in the dick and he cried out in pain. He rolled away from her, while she got to her feet and dusted herself off. Tobi picked a couple of twigs from her long hair, and she threw them at Deidara, where they slapped him in the face. They glared at one another, and she had to admit he had nice eyes, even though they were wasted on him. His kinjutsu was disgusting, even if the mouths proved useful. The tongue on his palm licked her gloved hand, so she dropped it on Deidara’s chest, where it drooled on him. Tobi was the one to help Deidara up, then he brushed Deidara off, paying extra attention to the teen’s ass. Kana slapped the back of Tobi’s head and he whined at her as he stepped away from Deidara. An act or not, she wasn’t putting up with his flirtatious behavior. She wondered if he acted that way when the two were alone. That thought had anger bubbling up.

Without Deidara’s clay bird, it took them hours to reach the Land of Grass, and they still needed to contact Kakuzu to fix the boy’s arms, if the threads would even hold. Kana had never asked about Kakuzu’s abilities with his kinjutsu, but she’d heard that he’d patched up Hidan on more than one occasion, like when they ran into Asuma and murdered the man. Asuma’s team was still after blood, but she didn’t think the teenagers had the strength to take down someone like Kakuzu, a man who’d survived since the time of the Shodaime. But a little girl had taken Sasori’s life, so she couldn’t entirely write off the possibility. In Kusagakure, Tobi doted on Deidara, annoying the teen until he finally exploded and tried strangling Tobi. Kana had to step in and separate them, leaving them on two separate beds in their hotel room. She sat in the chair and watched them, a scowl on her face. She knew Obito was purposely flirting with Deidara to piss her off, and it was working. It was his form of payback for her behavior with Jiraiya, and she couldn’t blame him, not when Jiraiya had repeatedly groped her.

“I’m not putting up with you for the duration of the journey to Amegakure. As soon as Kakuzu arrives, I’m dumping your ass,” Kana informed Deidara, glaring daggers at the boy. He met her angry eyes, and his anger only grew when she activated her sharingan. He hated the sharingan, and she knew that. The sharingan was the reason he was recruited, and he still hated Itachi for easily defeating him. “I don’t like you,” Kana shared, her voice more like a growl. Deidara stuck his tongue out at her, so she threw the tiny table at him, which he dodged by rolling off of the bed.

“You filthy Uchiha are all the same. Without your eyes, you wouldn’t stand a chance against my art, hm!” He had to use the bed to get to his feet, and when he did, he tried pointing at her, realizing too late that he had no arms from his bicep down. He grumbled under his breath and sat down on the edge of the bed, turning his back to her. “I’ll blow you up. Just you wait,” he muttered, throwing a glare over his shoulder. Tobi sat quietly, looking between them as if he couldn’t decide which one of them to support. If he opened his mouth and supported Deidara, she would walk out.

“That’s not very nice. We should all get along!” Kana and Deidara both glared at Tobi, so he nervously twiddled his thumbs. He knew the moment when she considered using her eternal mangekyou on him, so he stared at her, daring her to act. She huffed and turned her head away, deciding that Deidara wasn’t worth the energy. “I know! Let’s play a game. I spy with my little eye something blue,” Tobi excitedly said, the game quickly being ignored. After several moments of silence, Deidara sighed.

“Is it the vase next to the closet?”

“Yes! How did you know?”

“It’s the only thing that’s blue, hm. You aren’t very good at this game.”

The game went on for hours, until Tobi had picked out every color in the room. Kana slumped in her chair and tipped her head back, content to stare at the ceiling and follow along with Kakuzu’s chakra. Hidan was with him, which promised a good time. Together, they were nothing but filthy language, and she loved every second, even if he constantly wanted to sacrifice her pretty face to Jashin. Deidara passed out sometime after ten o’clock at night, which left Kana and Tobi alone in the silence. Kana looked over at Tobi, then she straightened up in her chair, her back aching from her previous position. She grimaced and rubbed her lower back, so Tobi held out his hands and made a massage motion that truly tempted her to forgive him for his flirtatious advances. Even though she still wanted to punch him, she gave up and joined him on the bed, where he had her lie on her stomach. He straddled her legs and massaged her back, paying extra attention to her tense shoulders and her aching lower back. Sometime in the middle of her massage, she fell into a light sleep, still enjoying the feel of his hands on her.

Kakuzu and Hidan arrived in the village at three in the morning, so Tobi squeezed her ass. She swung blindly and hit him in the stomach, still half asleep and forgetting that it was just him. Tobi pouted and rubbed his stomach, so she mumbled an apology and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. It took her a minute to remember that they weren’t alone, then she felt Kakuzu’s familiar chakra and she sighed through his nose. She rolled onto her side and swung her legs off the bed, then she got to her feet and stretched. She left Tobi on the bed while she went to meet Kakuzu and Hidan, happy to get away from Deidara, even if the boy was still sleeping. She met with Kakuzu and Hidan around the village hospital, where they’d assumed Deidara would be waiting. Deidara should have been in the hospital, but his wounds had been dressed, and the bleeding was minimal in comparison to the moment following the injuries.

“Hey, bitch,” Hidan greeted her, a smirk on his face. She smiled, because she genuinely did enjoy Hidan’s company. She’d forgiven him for nearly killing her, even though he made it clear he still intended to kill her. She saw the threads holding his head on his body and she squinted at him. “Fucking kids. This bastard fixed me up, after nearly ripping my hair out. He’s not all bad, right, Kakuzu?” Kakuzu closed his eyes, a signal that he accepted the veiled compliment. She knew it had to do with Shikamaru, and she made a note to decapitate him to return the favor.

“Your message said Deidara lost his arms. You expect me to reattach his arms?” Kakuzu addressed her, so she wrinkled her nose at the question. If she had the choice, she would have severed Deidara’s legs too. Hidan laughed at her expression, but she eventually nodded. Kakuzu nodded, then she motioned for them to follow her. “He isn’t in the hospital?” Kakuzu seemed surprised, even if his voice conveyed only a sliver of curiosity. She shrugged her shoulders.

“I was hoping he’d bleed out, but Tobi patched him up,” Kana explained, her words met with another laugh. Kakuzu hummed, as if he could understand her desire for Deidara’s death. Without a command from Pein, Kakuzu likely would have let Deidara die. She led them into the hotel room and caught Tobi placing the remainder of Deidara’s right arm into a bowl of warm water. She shoved him out of the way and dumped the water over Deidara’s head, startling Deidara. He woke up with a blind swing, forgetting about his arms. “Kakuzu is here to patch you up. I was hoping you’d die in your sleep.”

“I’m glad I disappointed you then, hm!” Deidara smirked at her, so she yanked on his ponytail. He snapped his teeth at her, so she pulled her arm back. While Kakuzu worked on reattaching Deidara’s arms, Hidan flopped onto the second bed and stuffed both pillows beneath his head. “It’s a reunion of people I hate,” Deidara muttered, turning his head away from Hidan. Hidan flipped him off, but Deidara missed it.

“So those kids are still hunting you?” Kana looked at the threads securing Hidan’s head in place, then she frowned. Hidan frowned and threw a look in Kakuzu’s direction. “If you want to kill them, I’ll go with you,” she offered, remembering how it felt to rip Sasuke’s left eye from his head. She didn’t know much about Asuma’s team, just the fact that Shikamaru had made chunin. The chunin in Konoha seemed to think they were invincible, and that was incorrect, which she wouldn’t mind proving.

“Yeah? We haven’t run into them in months. Kakuzu keeps us moving. This is the first time we’ve been in a hotel in over two months. He’s cheap as fuck,” Hidan complained, throwing an unhappy look in Kakuzu’s direction. The man was too busy performing surgery on the fly, or he might have insulted Hidan. Hidan only spoke facts though. Kakuzu was notoriously thrifty. “How’s hunting with this loser?” Hidan jabbed a thumb in Tobi’s direction, where the man was holding onto Deidara’s remaining arm. Kana didn’t mind traveling with either of Obito’s personas, but she was still angry about Tobi’s attentiveness. Deidara didn’t deserve the attention.

“Annoying. And I meant what I said. I wouldn’t mind fighting some kids, and I haven’t seen you sacrifice anyone in a while. It’s nice. You look badass,” she complimented him, earning an appreciative smirk from him. He sat up on his elbows, showing off the triangle pendant he wore on his bare chest. She enjoyed seeing Hidan in action, because his abilities were unique, even if other worshippers wandered the continent. “Don’t let it go to your head. You get too arrogant.” He scoffed and fell back onto the bed again, closing his eyes in an attempt to catch a brief rest. “You heard about Sasori?”

“Yeah. Beaten by some girl and a woman old as dirt,” Hidan replied, opening an eye to see her sit on the edge of the bed. She thought about the fight, how separating the pair had led to their downfall. It limited the amount of enemies they faced at once, but it left them too open for attacks. She toyed with the idea of warning Hidan, her teeth catching her lower lip between them. “I heard you tried blinding that Uchiha kid. What good is a blind Uchiha?” He laughed and she smiled at the thought of her fight. She purposely ruffled his hair and he frowned and slicked it back once more.

“Don’t use your arms for forty-eight hours. The threads need time to set and strengthen,” Kakuzu informed Deidara, looking at his work. The arms were back in place, but the skin near the severed area had darkened and turned rough, a disgusting sight to behold, but Deidara had both arms, and that made him useful again. “Leader wants you in Amegakure. We should leave now. That idiot and I have a mission to retrieve.” Hidan muttered a cuss word under his breath, so Kakuzu glanced in his direction, silencing him. The silence never lasted. It took seconds for Hidan to complain about sleeping on the ground again.

“You can have our room! Kana-chan and I have to go now,” Tobi offered, sounding too cheerful for Kana. He tried to hug Deidara, but Deidara nudged him right off the bed, where he landed on his hands and knees on the floor. Kana really didn’t want to be alone with him, but she didn’t want to admit it with others around. Hidan clearly liked the idea of sleeping in a bed, while Kakuzu quietly contemplated the offer. Eventually, Kakuzu nodded, so Tobi clapped his hands together. “That’s settled. Let’s go, Kana-chan! We can get dango on our way out!” The thought of having dango had her slapping Hidan’s stomach. The man grunted at the hit and tried to punch her in the kidney, but she used a body flicker.

“If you get cornered, don’t separate. That’s my advice for you. You don’t want to end up like Sasori.”

Her parting words fell on deaf ears, but she’d tried.

Chapter Text

With her appetite gone, she passed the remaining two pieces of her dango to Tobi. He happily accepted the stick and hummed a little tune, occasionally adding words to describe how the dango tasted. Kana didn’t know why he continued to parade as Tobi when they had the streets to themselves, but she was thankful for the noise. He’d made her jealous with his playful flirtations, so she knew when Tobi disappeared, they would have to address the jealousy settled between them. Maybe it was wrong of her to drag out the inevitable, but there was no real solution to their problems. She couldn’t take back the way she’d behaved with Jiraiya, and he couldn’t take back the way he’d flirted with Deidara. They would argue in circles, never reaching the ending they both craved.

Tobi dropped their skewers into the trash and brushed his gloved hands together, the signal that they were done and he was ready to leave. He offered her a hand, which she accepted, then they left the village for kamui. As soon as they were in the safety of his dimension, he released her, showing that he had no interest in leaving. She crossed her arms over her chest and frowned at him, silently willing him to broach the subject first. They danced around the words in the silence of kamui. He wasn't Tobi anymore, and she knew that just by his posture. She didn't think he had it in him to cripple her or kill her, but she kept the distance between them. If he wanted to spar, she had enough pent-up anger to fight with him.

"Did you have to flirt with Deidara?"

"Did you have to sleep with Jiraiya?"

"I didn't fucking sleep with him! How many times do I have to tell you?" She removed her cloak and dropped it on the ground, then she pulled her hair up to reveal her neck. There was nothing for her to conceal, not a single mark on her fair skin. After he had a good look, she let go of her hair. "No marks," she announced, hoping her display satisfied him. He stood in front of her and ran his hands up and down her arms, his light petting putting her on edge. He wasn't satisfied. "What do you want from me?" He toyed with the zipper on her romper, so she slapped his hand aside and began to unzip it herself.

"Take it off. I want to see you," he commanded, his tone making her hesitate. She couldn't grasp his feelings, whether he was angry or turned on.

Even though she didn't do well with listening to commands, she tugged her zipper all the way down and slipped her arms from the sleeves. He didn't find any marks, so he slowly slid her romper down her legs, where he touched her hips and caressed her thighs. He wouldn't find any marks on her. When her romper fell to the ground, she stepped out of it and did a small turn, showing her body to him. He removed his mask and ran a hand down her back, then he leaned in to kiss her. She should have refused him, but her feelings on his flirtatious actions resurfaced. There was nothing soft about the kiss. She bit his tongue and he placed a hand on the back of her head to force her to keep kissing him. He tasted sweet, like dango. There was a moment where their teeth met, then she bit his lower lip a little too hard and he stepped back. He looked her over from head to toe, then he hummed.

"Satisfied?"

"Not quite."

He palmed her breasts, lightly squeezing them a few times and brushing his thumbs over her nipples. She opened his cloak and shoved the sleeves down his arms until he pulled his hands away to remove it. He seemed more interested in marking her, claiming her in the way that he thought Jiraiya had, reminding her that she belonged to him, and only him. She ran her hands down his chest to the top of his pants, then she tugged on the waist, wanting him in the same way. She wanted him to hurt, even though she wanted him to feel nothing but bliss. Their mixed feelings were complicated, but they didn’t stop him from removing his shirt, just like they didn't stop her from feeling him through his pants. Deidara would never do the things she did for him, like Jiraiya would never touch her in the way that he touched her. Their sandals were kicked aside. As he pushed his pants and boxers down, she removed her panties. He didn’t get a chance to step out of his pants before she had him locked in another rough kiss. He tugged on her hair, forcing her head back to bare her throat. He marked her with his lips and his tongue, while she dragged her fingertips down his back.

He shoved her head down when they parted, his silent command buried in the way he tangled his fingers in her hair. She moved to her knees and his harsh hold became soft as he brushed his hand over her hair. She wrapped her right hand around the base of his cock, then she took the tip into her mouth. He pushed on the back of her head until she parted her lips more and took more of his cock into her mouth, humming around his length. She tried to slip a hand between her legs, but he tightened his hold on her hair and thrust forward, choking her with his cock. She pulled back, her lips wet, his precum on her tongue. He smirked at her and she licked her lips, tasting more of him. Maybe he thought he was punishing her, but she loved every second of it. With his cock wet, she used rough strokes to keep him hard. He pushed his hips forward to thrust further into her palm, so she took him into her mouth again.

“Did you do this for him too?” She opened her eyes to glare at him, knowing the question was a serious one. She took every inch of him into her mouth and moved her tongue around his length. His eyes closed and he moaned into the silent world around them. “Do that again,” he requested, his tone breathy. She pulled back to lick along his length, focusing on the head of his cock until he moaned for her again. He looked as if all of his walls had fallen. His brows furrowed, showing he was concentrating on every touch. She liked the look on his face; she liked knowing she did that to him. “Get on your hands and knees.”

He’d had enough of their foreplay.

Her knees already hurt from the concrete under them, but she had a feeling he knew it. She folded her cloak up and kneeled on it, then she fell forward onto her hands and knees. He moved behind her and rubbed his cock along her folds, teasing her. She thought she heard him groan, but her own gasp drowned out the noise. She never expected him to be gentle, so she wasn’t surprised when he entered her without warning. His hands gripped her hips and he squeezed, pulling her back with every forward thrust. He went so deep in her, hitting sensitive spots that had her gripping her cloak in her hands. She ruined his rhythm by moving back to meet him, so he slapped her ass. The hit was hard enough to make her cry out. She released her hold on her cloak, only to grip it harder, to the point her fingers began to ache.

He slapped her ass again and earned a choked off moan that faded into heavy breathing. She had a feeling he would leave her cheeks red from his harsh treatment, and she didn't mind at all. He leaned over her and kissed her shoulder, then he bit down on her skin, leaving a perfect indentation of his teeth. She hissed at him, and he followed up his biting by slapping her ass. Her skin stung and her shoulder ached, but she moaned his name, only encouraging him. He hurt her, and she let him.

"What do you want?" His question felt degrading, how he forced her to beg for him, so she moaned in response. He stopped moving and she thrust back against him, trying to chase her own release. "Tell me what you want," he said, squeezing her ass. When she didn't answer, he slapped her ass hard and pulled out until only the tip of his cock remained inside of her. She gritted her teeth, knowing he wanted to crush her pride.

"I want you to make me cum!"

"Did he make you cum?"

"I didn't sleep with him!" He teased her, using shallow thrusts that had his cock brushing against the spot that had her toes curling. She felt close, and he stopped moving, her whole body hot and tingling. "Obito," she finally begged. He rewarded her by pulling out and pushing back in, the motion carrying her over the edge. She moaned into her cloak, until he pulled her head back by her hair so he could hear his name on her lips. "Keep going. I can feel it. I'm close," she managed, her words unintelligible to him. She'd tried to communicate, but he knew exactly what she wanted and needed.

"Beg for it." He wanted to humiliate her, to reduce her to some woman only desperate for an orgasm. She'd already tossed her pride aside once, so casting it aside again was simple and familiar.

"Please," she moaned, wanting him to keep fucking her. He hummed, the inflection at the end hinting at his question. He wanted more from her, everything she could give, and all because he didn't believe her. "Please, Obito. Harder!" Her voice broke as he answered her request by roughly massaging her clit, his fingers pushing down, grinding against her. Her knees ached, her fingers ached, but she came for him. He came right after her, though he continued his slow motions until he was finished. He ruined her cloak with his cum.

"Maybe you should wear it this way," Obito smirked, pleased to watch her rest on her elbows. He slapped her ass again and she moaned, though it was more a noise speaking of the fact that she was spent. "I hope you know I'm not done with you. Maybe sex is all you'll understand." She didn't have the strength to argue with him, so she didn't bother. He rubbed her back and she sighed at his soft touch. "I flirted with Deidara to piss you off. He's no one."

"You aren't attracted to him?" She lay down on her stomach and rested her cheek against her folded arms. He sat next to her, so she could see him, then he ran a hand over her hair.

"I'm not attracted to him. He's an arrogant kid. What do I want with some eighteen year old?" He snorted, as if the thought of it was a joke shared between them. She chose not to doubt him, because she knew what it was like to be called a liar. "You really didn't sleep with Jiraiya?" She rolled her eyes at him and he pinched her sore ass, earning a swat to the side.

"I didn't sleep with him. Shouldn't you tell me I'm a good girl now?"

"Would you have slept with him, if we weren't together?"

"That's a stupid question. I would have run off with Itachi."

"Of course you would," he drawled, not believing her obvious lie. She cracked a smile for him and he brushed his thumb over her red lips. She'd bitten them until they felt raw. "I hope you know if you cheat on me, I'm going to kill you." He was serious. The words should have scared her, but she lightly patted his left thigh.

"The same goes for you." He stared at her, as if they would both back down on their threats, then he nodded. He lay on his back, one arm folded behind his head, so she kissed his cheek, until he turned his head and captured her lips.

"Suck me off. Your punishment isn't over."

"Will you choke me this time?"

Chapter Text

“So he gets a week to live and you toss him out on his ass?”

“He’s a broken tool, Kana. We can’t just abandon the mission for him.”

“Fuck Utakata! Kimimaro has done everything asked of him. He and Jugo took down Yugito. He’s a better member than Deidara, and that piece of shit got the star treatment.”

“You want to sit at his bedside and lament?”

Kana pressed her lips together and narrowed her eyes at him. When Obito didn’t fold under her harsh look, she turned on her heel and walked in the direction of Kimimaro’s chakra, even if the journey would take her days on foot. She glanced over her shoulder and found Obito still standing in the middle of the road, silently watching her walk away. She couldn’t stand his open posture, how he seemed perfectly fine with her abandoning him, so she turned around and pointed at the ground, silently demanding he join her on her quest to reach Kimimaro. He looked up at the sky, then he slowly walked towards her, even though his chakra stirred and raced with his growing frustration. Since they were alone, she thought wrapping her arms around him would cool his temper, but he was rigid in her hold. She didn’t pull away until he gave in and looped an arm around her in return. Kimimaro had been useful. And maybe it was too sentimental of her, but she still felt responsible for Kimimaro, despite the fact that they rarely saw one another.

“You know I’ll go alone, if I have to,” she lied, knowing she wouldn’t abandon him. She didn’t think she could suffer through the guilt. She’d left him and he’d occupied her mind. Maybe it was love with a heavy dose of obsession, but she knew he felt the same way, even if he didn’t show it, even if she wanted to punch the feelings out of him. “It won’t take long, and we both know Utakata is a sensor now. His stupid bubbles are impossible. He’s a major pain in the ass,” she complained. Obito remained unusually quiet, so she knew he was considering his options. If he really wanted to continue with the mission, she would suck it up and follow him, but she would resent him for it, and they both knew that much. “Would you want to be alone when you died?”

“Nice try. You forget that I was left to die, and he isn’t alone. If we take this detour, you’ll work with Deidara to capture the three tails in addition to the six tails, unless you’d rather have me work with Deidara,” he trailed off, knowing he was baiting her with her own jealousy. She gritted her teeth and squeezed him to herself, putting enough force behind it to crack his back. He chuckled, though he sounded breathless, then she pulled back to see the crease by his eye, showing he was too amused at her reaction. “You’re asking a lot of me,” he thought aloud, counting her requests on his fingers. “You want me to lure Zetsu into a trap for you, you want me to put my plans on hold so you can watch your friend slowly waste away, you don’t trust me around Deidara,” he listed. She slapped his hand down to avoid him listing more of her wants.

“I don’t trust you around Deidara because you wanted to see his dick!” She shoved his shoulders and he laughed, avoiding her second attempt at pushing him. She turned her nose up at him and he rested a hand on her lower back. “I bet it’s small and pathetic, like him, the fucking midget,” she muttered, her grumblings still heard.

“It’s not bad,” Obito replied, making a so-so motion with his hand. Kana stared at him for a minute, then she kneed him in the balls and walked away. He caught the sleeve of her cloak and dragged her into his arms, where they transitioned into kamui. He doubled over when they were there and she jerked her arm from him, freeing her cloak. “You didn’t have to knee me in the balls,” he ground out, head up so she could see his narrowed eye. She made a so-so motion with her hand, so he punched her in the stomach and shoved her onto her back. She cracked her head against the concrete and groaned in pain.

“I hate you,” she managed, reaching up to feel the back of her head. When she pulled her hand away, she saw blood on her fingertips and burst into laughter, recalling the last time he’d cracked her skull. He stood and saw the blood on her fingers, then he walked to her side, where she turned her hand around so he could get a better view. He sighed at her and stooped down beside her, where he pulled her to a seated position and examined her head. She still felt burning rage at the thought of him looking at Deidara. “Jiraiya was big,” she said, thinking she would hurt him in the way that he hurt her. He stopped checking on her head and released his hold on her, so she fell back onto the concrete. “It wasn’t bad,” she continued, trying to rile him up. He grabbed her by her cloak and dumped her out of kamui, then he vanished.

Kana stood in the middle of the road, until she felt his chakra reappear on the other side of the Land of Fire. She took a few wobbly steps before she fell to her hands and knees. Her palms were raw from her time with Obito, and her knees burned on the rocky ground under her. She deserved the punishment, in some sense; she’d let her anger cloud her judgment, and it left her stranded in the middle of nowhere. She crawled a few feet before she gave up and curled up on her side. She thought he would return for her, but he didn’t. She heard wagon wheels on the dirt road and forced herself to her hands and knees again. The wagon slowly came to a stop and a man jumped down from the horse. He rushed over to her and she saw a familiar face looking down at her. She thought she recalled him from somewhere, but she couldn’t place his face. She knew him, somehow.

The ringing in her ears drowned out most of what he was saying to her, so when he tried to lift her up, she fought against him. He held up his hands in surrender and continued kneeling at her side. When he tried lifting her again, she let him help her to her feet, but she refused to let him guide her to the wagon. She recognized him, but she still didn’t know him. He kept trying to talk to her, but she had to wait for the ringing in her ears to stop. He tried picking her up, but she flailed and punched him in the nose. He took a couple of steps backwards and cussed to himself, while he felt his nose to see if she’d broken it. She almost felt bad for hitting him.

“You have a hell of a right hook,” he complained, his nasally voice clear when the ringing stopped. She leaned against him when he went to her side again. He looked in every direction, trying to find someone in the area that knew her, but Obito was long gone. “You really are a handful, aren’t you? I bet you don’t even remember me. We met at that bar in the Land of Rivers. You told me I herd sheep.” She frowned in thought, then her mood plummeted and she tried to push him away from her. He caught her wrists to stop her from shoving him, so she tried kneeing him in the balls, but he jumped back. “Do you want my help or not? There’s nobody for a long while,” he admitted, glancing over his shoulder at the road that seemed to stretch on forever. He threw her left arm over his shoulders and hooked his arm around her waist, then he helped her to the wagon.

“You’re that loser that hit on me,” she sighed, giving in to his attempts to help her. He didn’t have any first-aid supplies, so he sat her on the back of the wagon, her feet dangling over the ground. When he tried touching her head, she hissed in pain. “What are you doing here? You have some produce back here. Did you finally get your farm going?” She didn’t care, not with her head throbbing, but she didn’t want him to leave her alone, and she didn’t want him to get the wagon moving again. Just the thought of being jostled around had her feeling half sick.

“Yeah, actually. I found some nice land in Fire. It’s home.”

“He’s probably coming back for me.”

“Um, look, I’m not trying to make you feel even worse, but whoever he is, he dumped you on the road and left you. Do you really want to be here, if he comes back?” She did. She wanted to wait there for Obito, even if he didn’t return for her. She groaned at her own thoughts and fell to her back, knocking her head against the wood, the hilt of her sword making a noise. The man lightly patted her leg, then he looked around again, clearly trying to find someone. “My name’s Toshiki. I guess I never introduced myself, huh? What’s your name?” She lifted her head enough to see him, then she slumped against the wood again. She didn’t care about his name, and she didn’t want to share her name. He was only there for company. She regretted testing Obito.

“Hana,” she lied, sharing a name similar to her own. He saw blood on the wood and his expression darkened. He likely thought she’d lost a fight, maybe that she’d been mugged and left for dead. She had nothing to offer him but basic supplies and her wakizashi. Obito had their money. “I need to get to Amegakure. I have a friend who’s dying, and I want to see him before he passes. How far west are you going?” She lifted her head again and saw his thoughtful expression, his index finger lightly tapping his cheek. He removed his vest, folded it up, and placed it underneath her head.

“I can get you to the border,” he promised, helping her move further into the wagon. She still had his vest under her head, which felt a lot better than wood or concrete. “I need to get moving. Bandits frequent this area and I’m carrying money from the last marketplace,” he admitted, sheepish. She gave him a thumbs up and curled up on her side, then he returned to his horse and the wagon resumed moving. The ride was anything but smooth. Her stomach rolled whenever the wagon hit rocks. “You alright back there?” She responded with a moan of pain, but the wagon kept going.

She fell asleep in the late afternoon and woke up at night, when the wagon stopped moving. She smelled a fire and saw light from the camp, so she assumed Toshiki had stopped for the night. Her injury had scabbed over, and she felt slightly better, so she dropped down from the back of the wagon. Toshiki was talking to someone, someone she didn’t recognize, then the man passed Toshiki a pouch. She took a step backwards and bumped into someone, then arms wrapped around her, pinning her arms to her sides. She headbutted the man holding her, earning herself a sharp pain and double vision, but he released her. She turned and slit his throat with her kunai, then she kicked another man away from her. She fought as if she were drunk, her steps awkward, her body swaying. She took a left hook to the face that had her nose and lip bleeding, then she fell near the fire and tried crawling away. Someone caught her leg, so she flipped onto her back and kicked the person in the head.

“You fucking traitor!” She yelled at Toshiki as more men descended on her. He looked apologetic, as if it hurt him to betray her trust. She fought against the hands holding her down until someone covered her nose and mouth with a cloth that tasted of something sweet. The cloth remained over her nose and mouth as she flailed, successfully punching a man in the chest. She tried cursing Toshiki, but whatever the rag was soaked with, the fumes were starting to get to her. It wasn’t an instantaneous reaction, but one that built over time. She passed out as they turned her over and removed her wakizashi.

The bastard had sold her to slavers.

Chapter Text

Kana woke up in a cave, with her wrists and ankles bound. She heard laughter coming from outside of the cave, and light entered and danced on the walls, a sign of another encampment. Using her sensing skills resulted in a burn that traveled the length of her body, so she cut off her ability and tried to make sense of the bits and pieces of information she acquired from her captors’ loud conversations. She knew they were somewhere in Grass country, meaning they’d smuggled her across the border. The men clearly didn’t know about her position in Akatsuki, unless they meant to sell her to a village, where she would be tortured to death. Her wrists were sore and red flecks rose to the surface, showing she was bleeding beneath her skin. With her wrists bound behind her back, she tried shifting into seiza to reach her ankles, but she couldn't get a grip on the tight rope.

Annoyed, she growled and went back to sitting on her ass. The men were drunk, their laughter echoing in the cave. She couldn't get a feel for Obito's chakra without excruciating pain, so she found herself compiling her options. She no longer had any weapons, and she was immobilized, both problems that she couldn't easily solve. The coded chakra signals she sent caused her immense pain, and they yielded no results. She'd angered Obito enough to make him ignore her flares, which only contributed to her mounting frustration. She'd trusted the wrong person, something she couldn't undo. When the voices quieted, she heard the sound of cicadas, a sign that she was near where a brood had surfaced, and they had set areas depending on the year. That year, the cicadas emerged in western Fire, in a long strip down the border of the country, and into Grass. She’d been unconscious for too long. She hoped one of the men would venture into the cave to check on her so she could recover some type of weapon.

As time passed, the soft voices faded, until only the crackling of the dying fire joined the song of the cicadas. Light footsteps had her opening her eyes, so she saw the approach of Zetsu. He looked at her sorry condition, focusing on her bound wrists and ankles, then tipped his head to the side in quiet contemplation. She didn't know if Obito had sent him or if he'd followed her on his own. Her eyes fell to his hands when he presented her with her sheathed blade, her wakizashi perfectly balanced on his palms. He cut her free with her own blade, then he backed her against the cave wall and leaned in to lick her cheek. She shoved him away from her and rubbed the back of her hand over her cheek, as if she could wipe away the feeling of his tongue on her skin. Obito had the seal, or she would have used it on the filth.

"We didn't have to help you." She couldn't argue against the truth. His words confirmed the fact that he acted without contacting Obito. "You taste foul. I don't see what he sees in you. You're a distraction, practically useless." She gritted her teeth to keep from yelling at him and waking her captors. He leaned forward and snagged a slip of paper from her back, then he crumpled it into a ball and crushed it under his foot. She felt as if she could breathe again. "Clean up. He's waiting."

Maybe Obito did send him.

He walked out of the cave, where he disappeared underground, leaving her alone. The song of the cicadas acted as a chorus for her revenge. She thought about showing mercy and killing the men in their sleep, but she wasn't in a mercy giving mood. There were nine men in the camp, with a tenth man partially devoured by Zetsu. The man must have been the lookout, which was unfortunate for him. With nine men left, she severed a man's arm at the bicep and he woke up screaming, alerting the entire camp of an attacker. She shoved the man into the remnants of the fire and his clothes caught fire. The acrid smell of burnt flesh and burnt hair had her already unsettled stomach churning, but he wasn't the only one burnt alive. Blood soaked the blades of grass, making them glow under the light of the full moon.

She took a hard punch to the face that had her crying out in pain, so she used her mangekyou on the remaining two men. Even though her vision was blurry, with black spots dancing around her world, she managed to kill all of her captors. She lowered herself to the ground and tried touching the back of her head, but her hair was matted with blood. Hissing in pain, she pulled her fingers away from her injury and curled up on her side, supporting her head by resting it on her outstretched arm. She closed her eyes to stop the world from spinning, but she still ended up on her hands and knees, vomiting into the dirt. Groaning, she fell onto her side near her own stomach acid and tried to figure out how she was going to finish the journey. She needed a medic. She needed her worthless fiancé to get his shit together.

Her words had hurt him, but he’d hurt her first. And none of it mattered, because their words had been covered in barbs. She'd hit him, and he'd hit her back, and they were both wrong. The entire fight was asinine, as pointless as their jealousy should have been, but she'd never learned to control the emotion. She'd felt threatened, and the weight of the ring on her pinky finger hadn't reassured her. She no longer wanted Obito's help. She forced herself onto her right elbow and summoned Aimi and Arata. Aimi grabbed a mouthful of her cloak and tried dragging her onto her hands and knees, while Arata shoved her back to help. When that worked, she had Arata carry her on his back. Before dawn, Obito tracked them down.

Hands touched her, so she flailed, fighting against an imaginary enemy. "Kana. Relax. It's me," Obito greeted her, taking her into his arms. Arata growled at him, while Aimi circled him like a predator carefully stalking its prey. Kana thought about signaling for the two lions to attack him, but she waved her hand and they vanished in two puffs of smoke. "Are you done being petty, or do you need another timeout?" She groaned his name and he held her close to himself. She didn't expect an apology, and she didn't get one.

"I fucking hate you, Obito."

"If you keep saying that, I'm going to think you don't love me."

"Burn in hell."

"That's not very nice, Kana-chan."

He held her bridal style as they left the campsite. The pungent stench of burnt flesh was traded for the clean air of kamui. He lowered her to the ground, leaving her in a seated position to examine her head. She heard him hum, then his fingers explored her scalp around the injury. His chakra felt like fire ants, so she leaned forward, unable to escape the feeling. She felt his fingertips settle on the faint scar left behind, then he pulled her onto his lap, her legs over the side of his left thigh. She leaned against his chest and he held her in his arms. It was all the apology she would receive, and she was too exhausted to fight him anymore. He always rectified his mistakes. She still wanted to hurt him, but she exhaled through her nose and he nudged a kiss to her head. He wasn't forgiven. She didn't really know how to forgive. And she wouldn't forget.

"I dumped Jiraiya into bed and saw his dick."

"I saw Deidara at a bathhouse."

"Stop flirting with him. I don't care if he's receptive or not. It's infuriating."

He responded by rubbing her side. He held her as she dozed off, her head resting against his shoulder, her warm breath on his neck. She still hated him, but it didn't make her love him any less. Maybe that was close enough to forgiveness.

Chapter Text

He was wasting away, and he didn't deserve it. He had a lifetime before him, but the gods didn't care. Nothing in any religion provided her with answers or excuses or anything to explain why the world wanted him gone so soon. Knowing there was nothing she could do, she sat down at his bedside and watched over him, allowing Jugo time to catch a few hours of fitful sleep. Obito left her to lament, like he knew that she would, so she had nothing but the sound of the machine keeping track of Kimimaro’s vitals. Maybe she should have cried, but she'd lost too many people to feel the stirring of tears. Kimimaro was another tally mark on the proverbial wall, just another person she knew sentenced to the grave. She wanted him to open his eyes. She waited for him to finally come around, and when he did, he responded to her presence with a tired smile that barely upturned the corners of his lips. He had no fight left in him.

She studied him, seeing that he'd lost weight. His corpse-like pallor had her lightly patting one of his hands, her action hesitant and too light. She didn't want to hurt him, not when he was so fragile. She remembered the first time they'd met, how they'd both taken a chance with one another. Thoughts of Kakashi surfaced, but she stomped them back into the recesses of her mind. She wanted to think of Kimimaro, as if no one else existed. He deserved the attention; he deserved to know that his life meant something. There was a nagging feeling that she should rouse Jugo, but she didn't want to leave Kimimaro alone. She didn't know what to say to make things easier, to make things less tense, so she looked away as she searched her mind for coherent words.

"Kana-sama. You didn't have to come."

"Shut the fuck up. Of course I came. I should have been here sooner. I thought you were getting better."

"Yes. I was in remission. It was only a matter of time, and now I have none left. You shouldn't feel bad. You gave me a better life and a bigger purpose. I don't regret going with you that day.”

She hated hearing that he thought Tsuki no Me was something big, a bigger purpose to keep him moving forward. Maybe she believed he deserved a normal life, but shinobi never led normal lives. If a shinobi lived to retirement, it was usually an unhappy one. The human body could only take so much, and a lifetime of service promised nothing but future pain. It was why she wanted to die young, before her body ever had the chance to fully fall apart. She didn’t want to waste away. Seeing Kimimaro in such poor shape reminded her of her own mortality. There was nothing she could say that would make the moment any better. Kimimaro rested a hand on one of her hands, and she placed her other hand on top of his. Despite the painful ending, she’d done the best she could. Orochimaru had never lured him in. Kabuto had never had the chance to experiment on him. They’d saved Jugo. And all of it was over.

“Don’t cry, Kana.” The fact that he didn’t use the ridiculous honorific had her pausing. In the moment of silence, she felt something trailing down her right cheek. She pulled a hand back to wipe the back of her hand over her cheek, smearing the tear over her skin. Seeing Kimimaro in such a state reminded her of all of her losses. She cried for her family, she cried for her clan, and she cried for Kakashi. She cried at the thought of losing Obito, even if she deceived herself into thinking it would never happen. Kimimaro was another one gone. “It’s alright,” he soothed her, squeezing the hand he still held, “I’m not in any pain.” He tried reassuring her, but the words made her insides ache. That wasn’t a good sign.

“I’ll get the doctor,” she hurriedly said, trying to pull away. He tightened the grip he had on her hand, keeping her at his bedside. So they both knew it wasn’t a good sign. He’d accepted his own demise. He was brave, but he’d always been brave. She squeezed his hand, showing that she meant to stay with him. “You’re so stupid,” she whispered. He heard her, and he smiled, even though the expression spoke of more exhaustion. She smoothed her free hand over his hair, and he closed his eyes. He’d been an adorable, albeit annoying, kid, and he’d grown into an infuriating young man. “Kimimaro?”

His eyes never reopened. Jugo joined them several minutes too late, and the devastation was obvious on his face. There was no place left for him, no one to keep him balanced, no one to keep him waking up every day. She saw him slipping away, like she’d seen Kimimaro slipping away, both of them gracefully passing between her fingers. Her last words had been an insult, despite the fondness in her tone. She could have told him lies about the afterlife, something to soothe him in the way that he’d soothed her. Wherever he went, she hoped to go there one day, where there was no pain, where she could choose the people she surrounded herself with. She hoped that he would continue watching over her, as he’d done since the moment they’d met. She didn’t want to see him too soon, but some day.

Jugo stayed with her until rigor mortis set in. When Kimimaro’s body was covered and taken away, neither of them knew what to say. She watched in silence as Jugo removed the Akatsuki cloak he wore and dropped it on the floor. He walked to her side, where he bowed his head, thanked her for saving him, and left the room. She stared at the crumpled cloak on the floor, willing him to return, willing Kimimaro back to life. Several hours later, Obito finally came to check on her. The bed in front of her was empty, though the sheets were messy, and the cloak on the floor was cold. She wanted to blame him, but they’d exhausted their options. No one had been able to provide Kimimaro with the treatment he’d needed. If things had been different, Tsunade might have been able to save him. Thoughts like those were likened to fever dreams. Obito sat down on the bed, blocking her view of the indentation on the pillow. She raised her eyes to meet his gaze, and he squeezed her shoulders, the pressure making her grimace.

Kana waited for him to bring up the retrieval mission, but he didn’t. He sat with her in silence for several minutes, then he drew her into his arms and held her. She closed her eyes and rested her cheek against his shoulder. She should have been there. She should have been more involved. She’d lost herself in Obito, as she often did. Kimimaro hadn’t been lonely, but her mind told her that he’d needed her, and she hadn’t been there. Her mind told her ugly, unforgivable things. In the silence, everything seemed real, even with Obito’s arms around her. She mourned for the people she’d lost, but also for the ones she had yet to lose. Everything insignificant suddenly had weight. When she was sad, she lost sight of everything but the overwhelming cold attached to the feeling. And it was odd how sadness always gave her chills.

“He called me Kana,” she whispered, her words spoken against his neck. He tightened his hold on her, and she closed her eyes. She wanted to lash out at the world. She wanted to set the room on fire, to burn the whole hospital to the ground. Because nothing had saved Kimimaro. “Where did Jugo go?” He didn’t answer her, so she knew he’d let the man go. She didn’t know what to do about the one left behind. Jugo had truly served his purpose, but she owed him something more. “I want to go after Utakata. Let’s go,” she sighed, even though she didn’t move from Obito’s arms. The man wasn’t listening to her. He knew she wasn’t in the right frame of mind.

He slipped his right hand beneath her legs and stood, where they both disappeared into kamui. He held her as they transitioned from the silent dimension back into their world. She leaned against him, her arms loosely looped around him. She’d expected a backwoods village, maybe a lead on the whereabouts of Utakata, not the empty streets of the Uchiha district. They concealed their chakra and avoided ANBU as Obito carried her to her old apartment, where nothing had changed. The atmosphere didn’t make her feel any better, but she recalled locking herself away when she was at her worst, when even sex couldn’t provide relief. He carried her inside, then they ascended the stairs to her old home. She thought about the life she could have had, adding that imaginary storyline to her list of reasons to mourn. They entered her apartment, and she led the way through her old home, feeling too connected to objects and places. There was a cake sitting on her kitchen counter, the interior of the place smelling like a mixture of pine and sweetness. Obito lit a candle, and the light let her see the white icing on the cake.

“It’s matcha.” She stared at the cake, while he waited patiently for her reaction. He’d taken her to a safe space and presented her with comfort food, which was incredibly thoughtful. She had plenty of memories, most of them bittersweet, pairing nicely with the cake in front of her. “I, ah,” Obito began, rubbing the back of his head. She turned from the cake and wrapped her arms around him. He returned her embrace, squeezing her to himself. “I brought wine,” he added, as if she hadn’t seen the bottle on the countertop. She made a noise of acknowledgment, but she didn’t move from his arms. “Do you want me to cut it?”

“No, we’re taking the whole thing,” she replied, pulling back to let him see the ghost of a smile on her lips. He arched a brow at her, silently watching as she retrieved two forks from one of the kitchen drawers. She wiped the silverware off, even though there was nothing on them, then she took the plate that the cake was on, and proceeded to the stairs leading to the bedroom. Obito grabbed the bottle of wine and followed her.

When thoughts of Kimimaro surfaced, when she thought of the way Jugo looked, she shifted her focus to the cake in her hands. She focused on the taste of the cake, how the frosting would taste when it touched her tongue, and the moistness of the matcha cake buried beneath the light frosting. They’d kicked off their sandals, so they walked barefoot to the bed, where she sat down in the middle of her mattress and waited for Obito to join her. She presented him with a fork, and he removed his mask to share in the cake with her. The bottle of wine went to one of the bedside tables. Maybe she should have collected plates for their cake, but she didn’t want to deal with a knife to cut it or a couple of plates to bear the food. She stabbed her fork into the round cake and took a chunk for herself. Obito snorted at her manners, but he mimicked her action, taking a piece of the cake for himself. They ate half of the cake together, where neither of them paused or tried to make conversation. It was the perfect distraction, even though hiding her feelings in food was a slippery slope.

The flavor of the cake was nice, so each bite chased away her darkest thoughts. Eventually, she had more than enough, so Obito placed the remainder of the cake and the forks on one of her bedside tables, nudging her clock out of the way. The tiny candle he’d carried from the kitchen was bright enough to light the area around them, but not much else. With the boards on the windows, they had privacy. She had the perfect opportunity to talk about her feelings, so she grabbed the front of his cloak, pulled him in, and pressed her lips against his. She tasted frosting and matcha on his tongue, the kiss slightly sweet, as if they were still devouring the comforting treat. He unzipped her cloak, then he unzipped his own, and they slid their arms from their sleeves. He thought that she would hide behind sex, something they both understood, something they both wanted, but she kept kissing him. She drew him in as she fell back onto the bed, and he kissed her lips, her jaw, and her neck. He slowly unzipped the top of her romper and kissed between her breasts, but he didn’t go any further.

“Do you want to keep going?” Sex was a good distraction. She felt more in control of her life. Faced with his question, she gave serious thought to her answer. She wanted to feel close to him. Their own mortality rose to the forefront of her mind. How many more times would they have together? Would they die quickly or waste away? Would they suffer? “Kana?” She looked down at him to see the concerned look on his face, then she nodded. He finished unzipping her romper, and they made slow work of removing their clothing, each movement more meaningful than the last.

“Tell me you love me.” It was a blunt request, but she didn’t apologize. She needed to hear the words. She needed to see his lips moving to make the words. He was over her, so he leaned down to kiss her. The kiss was delicious, as if they were slowly devouring one another. The taste of the matcha cake wouldn’t leave.

“I love you.” He kissed her again, while his right hand slipped between her thighs. He focused on her lips as he touched her, because she kept drawing him back in. She wasn't wet, and he wasn't hard, but she wanted his hands on her. He pulled back enough to meet her eyes, his sharingan burning into her own. "Is this really about Kimimaro?"

"I don't want to lose you too. I'm tired of losing people."

"I'm right here, Kana."

"Kiss me again."

Chapter Text

She dreamt of soap bubbles drifting in an unseen breeze. The lucid dream reacted to her thoughts, giving her control of herself, even though she had no control over where the dream took her. The stream of bubbles led her to the hospital where Kimimaro died. She wandered down a maze of long hallways, trying to find someone in the empty building. When faced with a single door, she hesitated. She knew that Kimimaro would be inside of the room, bedridden, as he was during the end of their time together. Someone encouraged her to open the door, a whisper that seemed to originate from the bubbles hovering in the air. She reached out with her left hand and slowly opened the door, but it wasn’t Kimimaro in the bed. The only thing that came to mind was how drained he looked. His pale skin told the story of his lifelessness, along with the dark circles around his eyes. And how did it come to that? He was invincible. He had too many lives to count. He had a dream he swore he would make reality. But he was half dead.

He saw her without really seeing her. She said his name, but he didn’t respond, so she repeated it again and again. He barely blinked, his dry eyes fixed on a spot on the wall. Without asking, she knew he’d failed in his plan to bring peace to the world. What she saw was whatever remained of him following the end of their mission. She didn’t need to ask about herself. She’d likely died, at some point. It was easier to accept her own death than to see him in such poor shape. The Obito she saw was a husk of his former self, with no fight left in him. She sat down at his bedside and took his left hand in hers. His right arm was gone, and bandages covered the remainder. She tried touching his cheek, running a hand over his hair, and humming a song she remembered her mother singing to Hajime when he was sick, but nothing changed. She squeezed his hand, then she pinched his thigh, but soft touches and pain didn't get a reaction.

"Obito?" She tried repeating his name again, and he finally turned his head to look at her. His sharingan burned into her, his anger and hurt fueling the red in his eyes. "I don't understand. What happened?" He grabbed her hand before she could pull it away, then he squeezed so hard she thought he meant to break her bones. All of his rage and hatred was communicated in how he held her hand.

"You ruined everything."

"I didn't. I won't."

"All you know is hurt."

Bubbles appeared again, floating harmlessly in the air. He released his hold on her hand and she stepped away from his bed. He didn't see her anymore. She had a room slowly filling with bubbles and dread in the pit of her stomach. She needed to wake up, but she couldn't. The bubbles slowly suffocated her. She woke up with a scream lodged in her throat. She'd jerked upright in bed, and her sudden movement woke Obito. Her hands went to her neck, as if she were going to scrape the bubbles from her skin, but Obito pried her hands away. She’d scratched herself in her sleep, something she hadn't done since childhood. The scratches stung, but the pain let her know that she was awake, that all of it had been a terrible nightmare. She understood the bubbles, since they related to Utakata, but she couldn't decipher the meaning behind anything else.

"Why can't I just have wet dreams instead of nightmares?"

"I think a lot of people ask that question."

"I dreamt we failed and you blamed me for it," she quietly admitted. He sat up beside her and lit the candle again so they weren't shadows in the dark. She didn't remember going to sleep. "I think I was dead, but you made it. You looked miserable. You were so pissed off." She didn't know why she chose to tell him about her nightmare. He wasn't there. He looked half asleep, his brain slowly trying to piece together what she said and what she experienced. "Forget it," she sighed, lying down again.

"It's just a nightmare. It's not real," he tried reassuring her. He lay down again and drew her into his arms, where she closed her eyes and tried to forget. Kimimaro’s lifeless body came to mind and she sighed through her nose. "We're not going to fail. It's not an option. And I won't let you die." They both knew he couldn't promise her that, but she enjoyed hearing the words. He would piece her back together again, like he always did, until there was nothing left of her.

"You would be lost without me."

"Something like that."

She tried elbowing him in the gut but he squeezed her to himself, so she relaxed in his hold. The dream still pursued her, even though she was hidden away in her old home. Everything led her to their issue with Utakata. He evaded capture because of his bubbles. Once inside of a bubble, he seemingly vanished. There was nothing left to track. They’d never tried tracking the bubbles, because she’d been too focused on keeping up with the jinchuriki. The bubbles had a unique feel to them, because they weren’t ordinary bubbles. They could act acidic. They could act explosively. They had the strength to carry a grown man across great distances. Utakata wasn’t the answer. They needed to stop pursuing him and start pursuing the bubbles. But the idea sounded insane. The thought of explaining her reasoning to Obito made her question her own sanity. She didn’t want to tell him that they needed to hunt bubbles. His hold relaxed and his left hand rested over her bare stomach, a sign that he was comfortable.

“We need to track the bubbles.” He didn’t react to the words, so she assumed he’d fallen asleep. When she tried to peer over her shoulder at him, he kissed the back of her neck. He didn’t understand, and his mind was wandering to better places. “I’m serious,” she frowned, slapping his hand when he tried to fondle her breasts. He tightened his hold on her again and she ignored the possibility of squirming out of his reach. He wasn’t fully awake, so they weren’t on the same wavelength. At that moment, she wondered if she even made sense. “I’m talking about Utakata.” He hummed and kissed her neck again, so he was clearly partially attentive.

“I’m aware,” he replied, as if she were stupid for ever doubting him. She rolled her eyes at him and let him continue groping her. She’d underestimated his ability to multitask. “I started sensing when you told me we needed to track the bubbles. He’s close to Konoha.” He sounded calm, his tone even, his heart rate steady. He didn’t seem surprised by the news, but she’d never anticipated the move. Konoha had made contact with Utakata, at some point. “Two days ago, Naruto made contact with Utakata on a mission. That was my last successful attempt at tracking him. I had other things on my mind. I would guess that Naruto had something to do with this. He has a way of making people fall all over him, doesn’t he?”

“They’re already aware that we’re going to strike Konoha. Why would they bring another jinchuriki to us?”

“I would guess that they’re trying to trap us. It would work, if they knew what they were dealing with. This will work in our favor. He’s six hours out. When he arrives, I can go meet with Pein and we can discuss triggering this trap.”

“I can find that dick and go after the three tails while you’re dealing with this?”

It was an offer, because she wasn’t in a position to dictate to him. He appreciated suggestions phrased as questions, something she’d learned over time. There was no extraction process needed for the three tails, so sealing it away wouldn’t require all of the current members of Akatsuki. The focus could shift to Konoha. Their plans were altered, some parts rushed, but striking wasn’t impossible. Obito had made it clear that he didn’t want her involved in the attack, even though she wanted to take part in the maneuver. She didn’t want to spend time with Deidara, even though they needed the three tails. She offered to go with Deidara because of him, nothing more. The fact that he didn’t accept her offer made her wonder if he planned on cutting her out of the equation, or even accompanying Deidara himself. She hated both possibilities. His hand stilled on her left breast.

“Don’t kill Deidara,” he finally replied, making her smother a smirk. “If something changes, I’ll find you.” He moved his arm from around her, so she turned onto her back to see him. She placed her hand on his right cheek and he leaned down to kiss her. Their lips brushed a few more times, partial kisses, lazy kisses, that had something pleasant curling in her stomach. “What will your dream world look like?” The question surprised her, because he’d never mentioned trapping her in the infinite tsukuyomi. Maybe she should have taken the question at face value or swooned at the opportunity to describe her dream of their eternity together, but she scowled at him. “You didn’t think you’d fall under the effects of the infinite tsukuyomi.”

Her first thought was to take the remainder of their cake and slam it into his face, a reaction she quickly shoved aside, because the cake didn’t deserve to suffer from her frustrations. Her second thought was to punch him in the face, a reaction she set aside for later. Instead of physically attacking him, she chose to throw her legs over the side of the bed and sit up. Her anger ran so deep that she couldn’t properly process it and voice herself. She grabbed her panties from beside the bed and stepped into them, while he watched her slowly dress herself. She thought he might make excuses or decorate the truth with beautiful lies crafted just for her, but he watched her in silence. She had no idea where she meant to go. She didn’t know if she had it in her to leave him again. But she wasn’t sleeping with him, and she wasn’t going to let him try to talk her down. The idea of rotting away while a genjutsu warped her mind didn’t sound like a good time, certainly not something she’d fight to make a reality. He’d made her believe that they would have each other. The rest of the population could rot in some make-believe world, but not them, not her.

“I’m not wasting away in some damn fake world of yours. There’s no point in building a life with me if I’m not going to be a part of it. I put up with a lot of your shit, too much shit, and there’s no way in hell I’m putting up with this. Figure it out.”

The last words were hissed at him. To make herself feel better, she kicked the corner of her bed, jarring the mattress he was on. She took her wakizashi, slipped it onto her back, and marched out into the deserted streets. The infinite tsukuyomi was a tool to save the world, and she didn’t need that kind of saving. He could figure out a way to exclude her. She didn’t know what she would do if he didn’t.

Chapter Text

He sat on the top step of the pathway leading to the abandoned shrine. The torii at his back looked redder in the light of the full moon, an ominous look for the entrance to the Shinto shrine. Kana looked from his figure to the clan symbol atop the torii, where the colors on the wooden plaque had faded, like their clan had faded. At one time, only the shrine had existed, and then their clan had expanded, their numbers doubling over the years, until the night of the massacre. The building was beginning to slip into disrepair, where years of neglect had resulted in a weakening of the roof and large spider webs spanning windows and doorways. If Sasuke visited the building, he no longer went inside, and it was sad, in a way, how their clan had once been a pinnacle of what it meant to be a successful clan. If it weren’t for the coup, things would have ended differently. Maybe Danzo wouldn’t have made his move. Maybe Obito wouldn’t have returned for blood. Maybe Itachi would have had a normal life, a long life, with a bright future, if any shinobi truly had a bright future. It was a night of revelations and remembrance.

Her steps were slow and steady, because she wasn’t in a hurry to meet with Itachi. He showed no signs of standing or leaving, and she didn’t know what she would say to him when she finally reached him. He was alone, so she considered asking about Kisame. It was odd for her to feel their chakra signatures so far apart. Something made them separate, and she wondered if he also knew it was a time for remembrance. There was no way Obito had missed Itachi’s chakra signature in the village. Unlike her, he had focused his sensing outward, while she’d blocked out the world around them in favor of focusing on him and the bed that they’d shared. She knew that Itachi wasn’t there for her, so there was no need to avoid him. They were two people heading in the same direction, even if she had no idea where they were going.

When she reached the top step, she removed her sword and sat down, then she placed the blade beside her on the stones. Itachi made the area seem picturesque, since he looked at the trees as if he were looking at a fine work of art. She saw a tree with a murder of crows, all of them moving their wings about, restless movements that likely matched what Itachi was feeling. He’d always hidden too much of himself. She was more forward and open, thanks to her brash personality. He was a victim of circumstances beyond his control. In a world demanding more, Itachi had nothing left to give. She wondered if he meant to finally say goodbye to his past, something she still hadn’t done, something that was long overdue. She looked at him and saw the boy from the market grocery shopping for his mother. Time was never kind to shinobi. Though she’d had her suspicions over the years, she’d never asked him about the massacre. What little Obito had shared had satisfied her. But was it really enough?

“He didn’t die here, but in a way, he did.” Kana turned her head to see his profile. He looked calm, but inside he was as anxious as the crows. One bird called out in the night, so her attention shifted to the murder of crows. She should have asked for a name, for more information than his vague introduction to an unknown story, but she chose patience. The patrol routes no longer included the abandoned shrine, and Obito showed no signs of following her, so they had all night. “I was too late, something that will follow me to my grave, along with a slew of other regrets. He trusted me with our clan. He trusted me to reach a peaceful conclusion to the rising tension between the village and our clan, and I failed. I did the only thing I thought I could do, and I realize now that it was another failure. There is nothing black and white about the world, Kana. We exist in shades of gray. To Sasuke, I’m a monster. To the world, I’m a monster. I feel like a monster,” he trailed off, frowning into the distance. Sometimes she felt that way too. Sometimes she liked feeling that way. But not him.

“Your heart's too big, Itachi.” She leaned forward and rested her forearms on her legs and another crow cried out. She understood him a little better. He was hurting, and he’d been hurting for a long time. They should have talked about their feelings years ago, when they were both dragged into Akatsuki. She still remembered the look in his eyes, and how he’d smoothed out the edges in his persona to adapt to his new role as a missing nin. “Did you even kill anyone that night?” For the first time, he turned his head to see her and their eyes met. He looked away without answering the question, so she thought he’d ignore the words, but he didn’t.

“I killed my parents, like you killed your parents. They were enough. That was enough.” His chakra signature reeked of sadness and bitterness, and she knew exactly what that felt like, thanks to Obito’s chakra signature. They all shared the same sour feelings for very different reasons. It was a night for uncovering things better left unsaid. Of course he’d been too innocent, even as a child soldier. Neither of them had recovered from that night. “I’m a spy for Konohagakure, and have been since the moment I joined Akatsuki, but it shouldn’t be a surprise to you. Telling you this now means nothing. I’ll face no repercussions. I’ll die tonight, by my brother’s hands.” He sounded as if he were discussing something of a lighter nature than his own death. The way he phrased his final words made her think of the way her father had died. Sasuke would never know how Itachi felt about him, how much Itachi truly loved him, until it was too late. Some part of her enjoyed the thought of the utter breakdown Sasuke would endure, and some part of her deemed it a waste. Itachi still had worth.

“If you loved him, you wouldn’t do that to him. Then again, if you loved him, you wouldn’t have fucked off all those years ago for a village that cut you off. They did, didn’t they? You see yourself as having little value, and that’s false. I’m not going to sit here and preach to you, but you aren’t some cheap, broken tool. Is this end you have in mind for your benefit or for his? Is this some pathetic attempt at a self-inflicted punishment? You know you can leave. You can walk right back to this piece of shit village, unseal your records, and transition back to your cookie-cutter lifestyle you had before. Your name would be cleared. You would be a hero for your major sacrifice. Sasuke would mourn and sob and bitch and embrace you, at the end of the day.”

“You ripped his eye out.”

“And I’d do it again. What I said stands. Are you hoping your death will trigger the mangekyou? You don’t honestly think he’s going to be a major player in the scheme of things, do you? He’s pathetic, driven by pure emotion. He’s weak. He doesn’t have the strength you have, and what makes you think this won’t play right into Obito’s hands? You’ll be dead. Sasuke is stupid and impressionable. Obito is a master manipulator. I fucking know that. You fucking know that.”

“I have nothing left, Kana. I won’t live long enough to have any further impact on Tsuki no Me. Sasuke is going to need all the strength he can get, and I can do this last thing for him, like Shisui did for me.” She couldn’t help but snort at the latter, because that was a terrible parting gift, to watch someone you love die. He actually thought Sasuke would fight for Konoha, and she knew in her gut that Sasuke would have a complete meltdown. She pursed her lips and threw her hands in the air, then she got to her feet. “This is the only way,” Itachi frowned, his mind set on his own demise. After taking a calming breath, she slapped the back of his head and he fell off his step. He looked at her in surprise, the first genuine reaction she’d seen from him in a long time.

“You’re an idiot. What is it with Uchiha men and taking one for the team? I’d fuck off and live happily ever after with my stupid little brother. You have family left. You have someone left. You’re wasting your fucking life! That weathered hag can probably heal you. Blindness sucks, but you’d be alive. Do I have to paint you a picture?” She crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at him, her shoulders squared, her height used to its full effects. He touched the back of his head, then he stood and tried to make sense of her one-sided rant. She was speaking from her own heart, because she wanted that kind of ending. For a moment, she thought Itachi would focus on that fact, but the murder of crows took flight, the sheer number blocking the light of the moon. “You can get out. It’s not too late for you. Why are you ignoring a chance that others don’t have? There’s a choice, a right and a wrong answer. You’re choosing the wrong answer. Shisui didn’t die for you to throw your life away.” It was a low blow, but she saw pain in his eyes. For the first time since their meeting, his sharingan faded. He likely couldn’t see very far. He looked too young, even though he was taller than her.

He took her hands in his and lightly squeezed them as the crows circled around them in the sky. He smiled and leaned down to kiss her right cheek, then he exploded into a dozen crows that joined the birds in the sky. Just like she’d told him, she had a choice to make. She had the choice to go after one of the last parts of her clan and save him from making a grave mistake or worry about her own place in Obito’s perfect world. In the past, she would have chosen herself. And in the present, she didn't know. Maybe it was fate that they met on those steps that night. Before she came to her decision, she heard footsteps on the stone walkway. Obito had finally followed her. As he ascended the stairs, she watched him, knowing he wouldn’t follow Itachi, knowing they had different thoughts in mind. She wasn’t a savior, and that’s what Itachi needed.

“Did you know?”

“Kisame never told me, but we both knew it was only a matter of time. There’s no saving him, Kana. You can’t save someone who doesn’t want to be saved.”

She descended the steps, leaving Obito to watch her walk away from him. Itachi wasn’t Kimimaro. Saving him wouldn’t be a moment of redemption. But she needed to do something.

Sometimes saviors failed.

Sometimes the hero of the story died.

Chapter Text

Kana found him on his hands and knees, his head bowed, blood dripping from his eyes, nose, and mouth. Sasuke sat before him, eyes wide, mouth partially open, an expression of shock and fear. And it was stupid to fear Itachi. He had nothing left to give, no chakra, no strength—he was barely able to hold himself up. Kana made noise as she approached them, her sandals crunching on rocks from the fallen building. A broken throne was all that remained, a large crack right down the center of it, as if matching Itachi’s state. Sasuke had his left eye firmly closed, since all that remained was an empty socket. He saw her and brought his legs closer to his chest, thinking she came to assist Itachi in taking his life. She didn’t care about him. She stooped down beside Itachi and placed a hand on his back. She didn’t know what to say to Itachi, or how to prepare him for death, so she kept her hand on his back as he struggled to breathe.

She felt Obito approaching before she saw him. He took in the destruction, turning in a small circle to see it from every angle. Facing them, he clapped his gloved hands together a few times, silently applauding the brothers for a job well done. Sasuke clenched his fists at his side, fingertips digging into the dirt and rocks, drawing them into his palms. Obito stopped beside Itachi and kicked him onto his back, then placed a foot in the center of his chest. Obito applied a little bit of pressure, and it was enough for Itachi to groan in pain. Kana didn’t want to see him die. Sasuke should have protested, but Itachi never shared the truth with his younger brother. Itachi wasn’t the villain, had never been the villain, even though the world painted him that way. Sasuke would mourn and rage when the truth came to light; he would morph into the perfect tool to tear Konoha apart. The one person standing in the way was taking his last breaths.

“Any last words you want to share with your little brother?” Obito paused, waiting for Itachi to squint at him. Itachi’s eyes closed, so Obito moved his foot from Itachi’s chest to the man’s left hand, where he stomped down on it. Itachi cried out in pain, forcing Sasuke to cover his ears. No one could escape the horrific scene. Kana didn’t know whether to support Obito or ask him to stop. Without their intervention, Itachi would die from his injuries. There was no need for Obito to exacerbate things. “Tell him how the village used you and threw you away. Tell him what happened that night. Tell him the whole story. Doesn’t he deserve to know, Itachi? Tell him how you thought about him every day. Tell him how you never stopped loving him. You damned yourself to save his life. You aren’t the bad guy.” Obito ground his foot down on Itachi’s hand, breaking bones.

“That’s enough,” Kana frowned, standing. Obito glanced in her direction, his mangekyou sharingan meeting her eternal mangekyou. She didn’t want to fight him, but she wasn’t going to watch him torture Itachi just to drag Sasuke into their web. Sasuke heard every word. “He’s going to die. Let him choke to death on his own blood,” she reasoned, thinking it the better option. Maybe he wanted a swift death. Maybe that was the best option. But she knew Obito would never offer him the easy way out. The world thrived on Itachi’s suffering.

Obito looked down at Itachi’s pained expression and slowly moved his foot from the man’s hand. Sasuke grabbed the sword to the left of himself and used it to help himself stand. He stumbled the few steps to Itachi, then he grabbed his brother by the shoulders and violently shook him, demanding answers, demanding to know whether Obito spoke the truth. The two made for a heartbreaking scene. Kana turned her head away, refusing to look at them. She couldn’t block out their voices, but she wanted to, just because she didn’t want to know more about the night of the massacre. Obito purposely left his role out, so she knew he still planned on recruiting Sasuke. Obito grabbed her by her upper arm and dragged her to his side. His grip was bruising, so she grimaced the entire time. He didn’t like her standing up to him in front of Sasuke, and she couldn’t blame him.

“He’s going to betray us. He doesn’t have the balls to follow through,” she mumbled, eyeing Sasuke. The moment Itachi took his last, shaky breath, Sasuke let out a gut-wrenching scream that would stay with Kana for the rest of her life. She’d had that same energy multiple times. She knew the kind of pain Sasuke felt. He sought answers, and his only source of information was Obito. She wouldn’t tell him a single thing. She didn’t want to relive her father taking his own life again. “Kisame isn’t far from here. When you’re done with this piece of shit, find me.” Kana wrenched her arm from Obito’s grasp, took one last look at Itachi’s face, and left. She’d failed, if she ever had a shot at succeeding in the first place. He found peace in death. He would see Shisui in the pure land. She wondered if dreaming as she wasted away was such a bad thing. As she walked, she moved her ring around on her finger.

She followed the signatures as they approached Kisame. The journey would take her longer than expected, but she would reach him in time. Tsunade had sent Kakashi, Naruto, and Sakura to drag Sasuke back to Konoha, but they would fail the mission. Sasuke was easily manipulated, a product of his upbringing, so she had no doubt that Obito would succeed in recruiting him, even though she didn't care for him. From the couple of spies Akatsuki still had in Konoha, she'd learned that Kakashi had formed quite the bond with the trio, especially Sasuke. She wanted to see his face when he realized that he'd lost someone else. She wanted emotional devastation. Kakashi would likely try to get revenge for the last time they'd met, while simultaneously protecting the two chunin accompanying him. She would teach him another lesson about sacrificing his own safety for the safety of his team.

"I wasn't expecting you. He must have failed, huh? That’s a shame. I actually liked him." Kisame looked behind her, as if his teammate would rise from the dead and return to him. They'd had an odd relationship, one built on mutual respect, even if Kisame was originally tasked with reporting Itachi's every move. Somehow, they'd developed a decent friendship.

"He suffered to the very end and took his secrets to the grave. Konoha should build him his own monument. He's a martyr, just like he wanted."

“He went out on his own terms. I can respect that.”

“Somehow I don’t think he wanted to choke to death on his own blood, but I could be wrong.”

Kisame chuckled, finding humor in her words, reaching for something light-hearted in the midst of disappointment. He trusted Obito. He believed in Obito. So he likely saw something in Sasuke, the same thing that drove Obito to lure the boy into their corrupt group. She wanted such blind faith, but the conversation in her old loft resurfaced, reminding her that Tsuki no Me ended with her succumbing to a fake world that would show her true happiness that she didn’t want, that she didn’t need. She wanted ugliness. She wanted violence. She wanted Obito, the real Obito, and every imperfect thing he could offer her. As she met Kisame’s eyes, she contemplated killing him, just to remove a loyal soldier from the plan and sabotage it a little at a time. The thought stayed with her in the way that the image of Itachi’s broken body stayed with her. Kisame’s smile was slow to form, but it showed all of his sharp teeth, reminding her of a shark at the first taste of blood. She swallowed the question on her tongue, feeling the burn all the way to her stomach.

“Let’s just get this over with.”

“Wise choice, Kana.”

Chapter Text

She understood the usefulness of teamwork, and she understood how to operate on a team, but being stuck with Kisame for seven hours wasn’t her idea of a good time, especially when she was sure he was plotting something, just like she was plotting something. He was assigned as her babysitter for the duration of the attack, and she planned on losing him the moment Pein made the grand first move. The only positive thing that came out of her new partner was the fact that Sasuke was stuck hunting the three tails with Deidara, while her focus was the six tails. The jinchuriki was still present in Konoha, which gave her a front row seat for the future disaster area. Obito hadn’t wanted her there, but a disagreement with Pein and Kisame’s promise to look after her got her exactly what she wanted. It was a shame that Jiraiya had been killed to keep Pein’s fighting style a secret, but her moment of mourning was measured in a single breath. The man had long served his purpose in her life, so there was no point dwelling on his messy ending.

Konan went clockwise around the village, while she and Kisame went counterclockwise, and they met at the rear of the village. Konan nodded, a signal that her side of the village had been cleared of its scouts, and Kisame grinned, all the response the woman required. But something very important was missing from the equation: Naruto wasn’t in the village, and there was no way for them to halt the plan and wait for a better opportunity. They would progress and claim the six tails, marking another failed attempt on Naruto. The Animal path summoned Konan into the village, along with the other paths of Pein, creating the distraction Kana and Kisame needed to infiltrate the village. From that point, they had separate objectives. The Animal path summoned creatures Kana had only imagined in nightmares, while the Asura path created utter destruction with its weapons. And Kana, forced to sense in a village full of too many fluctuating signatures, pressed her palms over her ears and slowed her breathing. She finally signaled to Kisame by pointing in the direction of Utakata.

“He’s not here,” Kana confessed, earning a head tilt from her partner. “Naruto isn’t here. We need to get the six tails and get out. He’ll demolish the entire village.”

A Konoha nin flew past them and smacked into the side of a building, cracking the foundation—the man died on impact. Kisame watched the body slowly slide down the concrete to the ground, then a squad saw their infamous cloaks and decided to abandon the losing battle with the Asura path that had instantly killed the last shinobi. Kisame fought off the worst of their attackers, while Kana slaughtered the ones stupid enough to get in their way. They were forced to use alleyways to navigate when most of the roads were overcrowded with debris, but they quickly reached the hospital, where Kana saw Utakata harnessing the powers of four of the six tails. Two of Pein’s paths were engaged with the jinchuriki, while Sakura fought with a summoned animal.

“If we split up, am I going to have to hunt you down and drag you back, Kana?”

“You really know how to show a girl a good time.”

It was flirtatious, but they both understood that he wouldn’t handle her abandoning the mission. He was as aggravating as Zetsu, who’d still avoided her by constantly staying on the move. Tsuki no Me was an utter disaster, chaos embodied in one grand plan. Kisame joined the two fighting paths, while she waited for the summoned animal to get killed to fill in its place. Sakura had really grown, which made keeping her from Utakata rather annoying. Sakura was a brawler, destroying anything in her path, which meant Kana needed to keep distance between them and do everything to divert Sakura’s attention from the hospital, which became Kana’s focus. Kana threw kunai and shuriken with explosive tags to blow out the windows and enter the hospital rooms, then she attacked the injured shinobi seeking first aid. Her plan worked until the slugs appeared, then the tactics changed. One of Pein’s paths was injured and forced to retreat, and Utakata had gained two final tails, marking version two of the six-tailed form.

“Grr! Hold still!” Sakura swung at her and she flipped her kunai around and slammed it into the girl’s throat. Sakura fell to her knees, but it didn’t keep her down long enough. Fighting someone like her was terrible because Kana got little satisfaction out of crippling blows. “I know you know where Sasuke is,” Sakura ground out, her voice breathy from repairing her collapsed windpipe.

“Not ringing any bells, I’m afraid,” Kana lied, shrugging her shoulders.

Sakura swung at her a few more times and the girl received a solid punch to the face in response. From the corner of her eye, Kana saw the jinchuriki fall, his chakra dangerously low. The Preta path, in combination with Samehada, had effectively defeated Utakata, and Kisame lifted the unconscious man onto his shoulder. The Preta path used a body flicker to disappear. Kana stabbed Sakura through the gut and tried to slice the girl’s throat open with a kunai in her other hand, but a blonde appeared and took a swing that she was forced to dodge. Kana spat in the blonde’s face and backhanded her, then Kisame whistled and motioned that they should retreat. Their mission was complete, but it didn’t stop Kana from wanting to blow up the entire hospital. If the crackle of electricity against her extended senses didn’t distract her, she might have continued the assault. As it was, she had a new target.

“I guess it looks like we’re done,” Kisame said as the two girls gave chase. Distracted, Kana waved her hand at him, brushing off his words and any hope of a lengthy conversation. She was hunting, and they both knew it. She didn’t expect him to knock her off a building, but his elbow connected with her side and she spiraled to the hard ground below. “It’s nothing personal, but we no longer have a need for you,” Kisame explained as she was falling.

The last thing she saw was his toothy grin and his beady eyes. She cursed him until the point her head connected with the hard ground, then she blacked out. She regained consciousness when she felt hands slide underneath her back and her thighs. She swung blindly and punched the person in the face, so she was dropped to the ground again, where she hissed in pain. In the background, she heard cheering and calls of Naruto’s name, which meant the boy had finally arrived. A scan with her chakra told her that Pein had been defeated, though Konan still remained. Naturally opposed to being captured, Kana killed the shinobi that had tried retrieving her. Unzipping her cloak and slipping her arms from the sleeves of it, she removed the proverbial blazing target from her back and dressed the downed Konoha nin in it, hopefully buying herself some time to retreat. Kisame was long gone, his chakra signature well outside of the village limits, which left her alone behind enemy lines. But it wasn’t the first time she’d been in such a place.

The entire village looked like someone had stomped it into the ground, which meant Pein had at least succeeded there, but the number of chakra signatures told her that something had changed. There were more chakra signatures then she’d sensed before Kisame’s betrayal, something she couldn’t explain. She flipped her hitai-ate around, making it look like a bandana, then she snuck around the edges of crowds. The barrier was back in place, with no signs of weakness around the area, which meant she would trigger the alarm the moment she passed through it. She wasn’t in the best condition, but her arms had cushioned her head during impact, limiting the damage to her skull. She could run, if forced to, so she tested her bleeding arms and legs, then she slipped through the barrier team and ignited the search for her.

She engaged with the few shinobi brave enough to give chase, but most of the forces were low on chakra or taking stock of the damage around the village. She traveled in a zigzag pattern and left tracks and broken branches in directions she hadn’t really gone, further delaying the shinobi. After two hours of running, they gave up the chase, so she felt for Obito’s chakra. Like a flickering light, another chakra signature blinked out of existence, marking the death of another Akatsuki member. And the black smoke in the distance told her all she needed to know about what had happened to Deidara. They only had the eight tails and the nine tails to capture. She didn’t know how she felt about the ending in sight. Kisame knew that. Kisame did what he thought he had to do to remove anyone or anything hindering the completion of Tsuki no Me. She couldn’t blame him. He had an odd relationship with Obito. She didn’t like that.

“He probably dreams about riding Obito’s dick. Fucking bastard. I’m going to gouge his stupid eyes out,” she muttered to herself, signaling Obito with her chakra, like she should have done to mark the end of her mission. He didn’t immediately respond, so she dropped down onto a large, twisted tree root and waited, occupying her time with thoughts of murdering Kisame. In the end, Kisame still had worth. They had two tailed beasts left to capture. “Maybe they can fuck in the middle of the battlefield. I bet that shark fin fuck would really like that. He probably takes it like a pro. I’m so mad! Ugh, I hope he trips and dies on the way back to Amegakure. Dumb fuck,” she continued muttering, her anger only growing with the passing of time.

By the time Obito arrived, she had somehow twisted her anger to include him as a target. He looked at her bloody arms and legs, then at the blood running down the side of her face, so she waited for him to say or do something about her haggard state. Instead, he shook his head, so she chucked a pine cone at him that passed right through him. He let her jab a finger against the center of his chest a few times, then she huffed and flicked his mask.

“Your fuck buddy shoved me off a building!”

“He’s not my fuck buddy. That would be you.”

“He’d take it if you gave it. I guarantee it.”

He snorted, so she jabbed his chest with her finger one last time. He grabbed her finger and moved it away from himself, then he took her chin in his gloved hand and turned her head to see the injury near her temple. She had a lot more she wanted to say to him, more she wanted to demand from him; instead, she pressed her lips together and glared into the distance. Her anger paired well with her jealousy and suspicion. She couldn’t get over the sense of loyalty between Kisame and Obito. It left a sour taste in her mouth, one she meant to remedy with a shot of whisky and some half-assed healing by Obito. But he poked the injury on her head, making her grit her teeth and swat his stomach.

“You know, he probably would,” Obito thought aloud, as if he were tempted by the idea. She growled under her breath and pulled away from his touch. “He told me you were more concerned with something else instead of your mission. Is that true?” Her mouth opened in shock, because asking the question at all meant that Obito believed Kisame, to some degree. She thought about poking him again, but she settled for stepping around him, continuing on the route to Amegakure. At her back, he sighed. “You’re jealous. He’s a loyal subordinate and a valuable part of my plan. I’m not going to sleep with him.”

“You believe him, or you wouldn’t have asked me that shitty question. I’ve been through hell for you. I’m still at your damn side. Believe your fucking fiancée!” Kana kicked a pebble down the path and glared over her shoulder at him as he trailed along behind her. Still seething, she waved her hand at him, purposely accenting her pinky ring. He caught her hand, but she planted her feet to keep him from pulling her close. “Do you lead him on? Is that why he wants to suck you off so much?” Since she wasn’t budging, he closed the distance between them. She pulled her hand away from him and crossed her arms over her chest.

“He’s valuable.”

“You disgusting piece of shit.”

“I’ve been called worse,” he shrugged, unphased by the insult. “I don’t see the problem. It worked on you.” She stared at him for a long few minutes, her expression blank, trying to fully grasp exactly what he’d said to her. He made her question the validity of every love confession he’d ever made, and all with just a few words. It took him just as long to realize that what he’d said had ignited a chain of thoughts that would drive a wedge between them. “You’re overthinking this. We both used each other in the beginning, and we both know it’s different now. I really have somewhere I need to be, Kana. Can we continue this argument another time, preferably not in the middle of the road?” He motioned to the road they were standing on, so she looked in both directions, seeing the road stretch on for miles.

“Yeah. Fine. Just come back, I guess,” she mumbled, continuing down the road. She wanted him to stay. She wanted him to chase after her. But he didn’t. He vanished into kamui, leaving her to walk down the empty road alone.

Chapter Text

He returned in the middle of the night, after she’d finally given up and made a makeshift camp. She watched him slowly approach her and join her at the fire, as if he hadn’t abandoned her for hours. He wisely chose not to sit next to her, because she still had bitter, unspoken words lodged in her throat, and she wasn’t above throwing him into the fire. The one thing that kept her from continuing their argument was the fact that the mask he wore was cracked, with part of his scarred face revealed in the opening. One glance at his empty right sleeve revealed that he’d lost his arm near the shoulder. He looked as if he’d been through a war in the span of a few hours, one she knew nothing about, which only added to her bitterness. Her jealousy told her that Kisame likely knew about the fight, so she roughly stabbed a twig at the fire and watched the sparks dance in the night. He reached up to remove his mask, then he tossed it into the fire, where it cracked under the heat.

His face was still bloody and bruised from the force of the mask being smashed against his head. He sat with his knees bent, arms resting atop them, silently watching her in the same way that she watched him. He was assessing her for injuries. When it seemed like they would spend the whole night there, both of them too stubborn to call an end to their proverbial cold war, he crooked a finger and she went to join him. She didn't have anything to wipe the blood from his face, so she simply placed her hands on his cheeks and turned his head to either side. His nose wasn't broken, though dried blood staining his upper lip and chin told her that he'd had a bloody nose. He let her touch his right shoulder, but she avoided disturbing the remains of his arm. She knew he would push her away if she went that far. He touched her temple with his left hand, his gloved fingers searching for the scab from her own injury.

"You look like shit. What happened?" Frowning, she took his gloved hand in hers, noting that there were flecks of blood on the material, blood that didn't belong to her. She recalled a dull roar in the distance, one she'd interpreted as thunder, so she wondered if he had something to do with the noise. He squeezed her hand, smearing blood over her fingers and palm.

"I have the rinnegan." He waited for her to sense for Pein, then for Konan, waiting for the moment her frown eased and an unreadable expression took its place. They both knew what that statement meant. The war was so close that they could taste it. "Sasuke and Kisame are going after the eight tails as we speak. Konoha has already relocated Naruto. I can't sense him."

"You can't sense him? I thought," she trailed off, temporarily distracted. Instead of voicing her shock, she closed her eyes and opened her senses. Regardless of her level of concentration, she couldn't pinpoint the boy's location. There were spots where she felt nothing, empty spaces that aroused suspicion. "The kage are moving," she shared, as if he didn't already know about some of the kage leaving their hidden villages.

"They're calling a summit. It'll take place in five days. I'm going to give them an ultimatum, and depending on what they say, I'll announce the start of the Fourth Shinobi War."

"So this is it. It's the end."

She was extremely careful to mask her own feelings when it came to her tone, because she didn't want him to know she didn't want their time together to end. She wanted the war to stretch on for eternity, until she finally died in battle, because she couldn't see herself living in a world without him, which was scary in itself. They both knew that war claimed people. She wondered if death would be a better option than the infinite tsukuyomi. In the end, she couldn't decide. He turned the ring around on her pinky finger and they both looked at the symbol on it.

Sky.

Void.

Either one seemed infinite.

They had a lot to do before the summit, including retrieving the eight tails, so Kana assumed there would be a very brief recovery period and then Obito would permanently adopt his role as Madara. There was nothing left between them. So when he leaned forward to kiss her, she didn't meet him partway. He closed the distance between them on his own, and his lips and their kiss tasted like blood. The kiss didn't feel like a goodbye kiss, something to mark an end to their romantic relationship and a shift to what should have been their mutual goal. If it came down to raising the shinobi world and forcing peace into existence or saving Obito, she knew exactly what she would do. She would abandon the mission and save him, in a heartbeat, because even though she wasn't a good person, she wasn’t going to lose him again. She was selfish. She was greedy. She was in love.

"Let's go."

He squeezed her fingers and she mimicked him. She stood first, then she pulled him to his feet and he extinguished the fire. She collected her wakizashi from the ground and returned it to her back, then she went to his side again and he held her. She expected the tug of kamui, but he simply held her, so she curled her arms around him, and it finally felt like a goodbye. She bit down on her lower lip and contemplated how to communicate everything she felt without disappointing him with her negativity. Love confessions weren't easy, even after all they'd been through together, and she still didn't forgive him for leading Kisame on, but it was the perfect moment, one she couldn't ignore. But he spoke first.

"He doesn't mean anything. Nothing happened. Nothing is ever going to happen."

"I love you, even though you really piss me off."

"How romantic."

He slid a hand down her spine and squeezed her ass, an appreciative hum following, then he took her into kamui. When they left the quiet dimension, they were standing in the middle of a poorly lit room, one she recognized immediately. The wall of sharingan eyes made her shudder, but one glass jar stood out among them, the one containing the infamous rinnegan. He trusted her enough to leave her there while he went to repair his arm, so she approached the jar and admired the eyes. There was nothing physically appealing about them, nothing that made her covet them. She wanted to remove the eyes from the jar and crush them, like she'd crushed Sasuke's eye. Obito needed the rinnegan for his plan, and one simple act could destroy all of the work they'd put into making Tsuki no Me a reality. Right hand outstretched, her fingers barely brushed the glass before she heard footsteps. She wasted the precious seconds she had left and let her hand drop.

"They don't seem like much, but looks can be deceiving. I only need one, in the beginning. My mangekyou is still incredibly useful, the best gift I ever received." Obito stood back and admired his collection, clearly proud of the eyes he'd stolen. But Kana hated them. "It's really coming together," he mumbled, as if he hadn't spent precious years of his life on the plan.

He took the glass jar containing the rinnegan and handed it to her. He waited to see the same hungry look in her eyes, but he didn't, and he never would. Success promised her little; failure offered her freedom. The jar was simultaneously too light and too heavy, a burden to bear.

"Will this make you happy, Obito?" She didn't know why she asked the question, but she couldn't take it back. He looked at her in confusion, as if he couldn't understand the point of the question. His happiness didn't matter. That line of thought was both accurate and incorrect. His happiness did matter, whether he fully acknowledged the truth or not. People craved happiness. Even she wanted happiness. "You have value beyond what you assign yourself. You're more than a tool to bring peace to a world that has done nothing to deserve it. If anything, this world deserves to suffer for the atrocities shinobi have committed."

"It's your bitterness talking. This is about more than me, more than us. No one will ever go through what we've gone through again. Don't you want better?"

"Fuck those people. You deserve better! You deserve to be happy."

"I've had happiness. You've made me happy."

"I can keep making you happy. I can make you happy for the rest of our lives.”

She tightened her hold on the jar and he looked down at the rinnegan contained inside, as if he were looking for guidance, maybe for strength. They were having a discussion, not an argument, not something to be won, but Kana still felt as if she’d lost. He took the jar from her and placed it back onto its shelf, then he placed his left hand beneath her chin to shift her focus back to his eyes. She wanted to yell at him, to demand he listen to her, but the look in his eyes wasn’t one of anger. When he leaned in, her eyes shifted to his lips, then she met him partway. It was a soft kiss, their lips barely brushing, then his hands went to her hips and she vaguely saw the change from the underground room to kamui. Kamui was such an empty space, even with the stone platforms and pillars, but she loved being there in that moment. She thought that they would stay there, but kamui wasn’t their destination. She found herself breathing in cool, evening air, but she kissed him again, her focus still on his lips against hers.

“Aren’t you going to ask where we are?” He asked the question against her lips, his breath shared between them. Frowning, she pulled back enough to look from left to right, then she shrugged her shoulders. It was another village in a history of numerous villages; after so long, villages began to look the same. “I brought you here for a reason,” he gently chided, forcing her to survey their surroundings another time. She recognized the general feel of the village, but it was the variety of chakra signatures that told her they were surrounded by shinobi from many different places. He’d taken her to Curtain Village. From her flat expression, he could tell she wasn’t impressed. “They don’t ask questions here, Kana.”

“Ah, so we’re up to no good again.” She fixed his new mask to conceal his face, but he still kept his hands on her hips. He was supposed to be Tobi, but he still held her like Obito. Maybe that persona was long dead. She would never admit it, but she would miss that piece of Obito. “Well, why did you bring me here? I don’t recognize any chakra signatures. Are we meeting someone?” He took her left hand and pulled the Akatsuki ring from her pinky, then he slipped the ring into his pocket. There was no need for the ring, not anymore, not with the few surviving members of the group. It was another sign of the end.

“Will you marry me?”

The setting was wrong. The timing was wrong. The proposal was bland. She looked down at the new ring he held and really considered the purpose of marriage when they had little time left together. She’d been with him, to some degree, since she was eighteen. They had about ten solid years together, a lot of them rocky, and all of them focused on Tsuki no Me. But he still proposed to her, even though the setting was wrong, the timing was wrong, and the proposal wasn’t up to par. There was still meaning behind the gesture, something that erased the general wrongness. He loved her, in his own way, and she knew that, and it kept her standing there. He slid a ring onto her ring finger and the weight of it felt odd, like it didn’t really belong. It was silver, because she showed no interest in gold, and the diamond was small, because she didn’t care about the carats. In the end, rings without purpose were saved for special occasions. With the promise of war, they would be the only ones to see the ring.

“Yes.”

There had been no formal gathering to announce the impending engagement and no romantic plan involved in the presentation of the engagement ring, so she wasn’t surprised that Obito picked an unorthodox location and manner for presenting the wedding ring. Things could have been different for them. In an ideal world, Obito would have officially asked for her hand, and her father would have given his blessing. She would have had a nice engagement ceremony, even if Obito’s family would have been there in spirit. And the wedding would have been formal, with both of them wearing kimono. She imagined that life and it was gone, a stray thought lost so she could focus on the way he held her hands. Obito had no blessing, Kana had no engagement ceremony, and neither of them wore anything close to formal kimono. Kana’s clothing was torn in places, her arms and legs covered in bruises and scratches from the fall she’d taken, and she still had dried blood on her face; Obito had thrown out the tattered Akatsuki cloak, so he wore an all-black, long-sleeved shirt and pants, nothing close to the five-layer kimono expected of a future husband, and he still had blood on his face that he hid with his new mask.

“Did you want a traditional ceremony?” He took her silence as displeasure. She didn’t know how she felt about their impromptu marriage, where nothing was official, where there were no sips of sake. The thought of wearing a formal kimono had her lips twitching for a frown, but she had to admit she’d at least wanted to see his face. “If you want a traditional ceremony, we can have one,” he continued, growing impatient with her lack of response.

“We look like shit,” she stated, taking another look at their appearances. They looked like they belonged in the village, living amongst other missing nin. He sighed and she knew stating the obvious had aggravated him.

“We would change clothes, Kana,” he replied in a flat tone, rolling his eyes skyward. She narrowed her eyes at him, but she didn’t let his tone and his eye roll distract her from her first thought. She placed her hands on his shoulders and his gaze returned to her. “You’re really thinking about this, aren’t you?”

“You’d wear a kimono?”

“Would you?”

“Sure. Let’s go before the gods right before you start a world war,” she quipped, making him chuckle. He took her left hand and moved the ring around on her finger, reminding her that she hadn’t really answered him. There was an old shinto shrine outside of the village, which meant traveling through the hills. “Yes, I want a traditional ceremony, and I want you to ditch the mask for it. People don't ask questions here, remember?"

"Fine. I want you in all white."

"Ugh, fine."

Chapter Text

The white shiromuku looked out of place in the old shop, like a beacon in the hell that was Curtain Village. Kana touched the fabric for the seventh time, as if running her fingers over the patterns on the kimono would somehow make her feel more deserving of wearing white. She had a nagging suspicion that Obito wanted her in white to make up for the fact that he had to wear something other than shinobi attire.

The last time she’d dressed up, she’d taken Kakashi to meet her parents, which brought up memories better left buried. She indicated to the shop owner that she would take the shiromuku, which left her to find a decent seamstress to make the stolen items collected throughout her shopping trip fit her body. She should have had someone with her to help her along, someone to help her plan, but she didn’t have anyone left in her life. In a perfect world, she wondered if her sister-in-law would have been a close confidante. But the thought was fleeting, replaced by reality. Though she was alone, her wedding was hers to make and enjoy. It was likely the last sweet moment she would share with Obito. So she would wear white.

She paid the seamstress, even though she could have used genjutsu to get exactly what she wanted. In the end, money wouldn’t matter. Economic collapse wouldn’t phase a population trapped in an infinite genjutsu. The alterations took up precious time when every wasted second felt like hours shaved off her remaining days with Obito. The promise of money kept the chatty seamstress quiet, which made the whole process bearable. In the end, she packed her clothing and went to the meeting point to wait for Obito, but she found him patiently waiting on her to arrive. She waved from a distance and he motioned for her to join him, then they began the hike for the shrine.

"I'm nervous."

She didn't know why she chose to share the odd emotion. She'd been through dangerous missions, risked her life multiple times, and she'd never felt as nervous as she felt then, which was both surprising and incredibly annoying. Her palms were sweating and her heart was pounding, ridiculous reactions for something that she swore meant a lot less than it did. He didn't say anything for several minutes, as if he were trying to understand her reaction. They'd already seen one another naked; they'd already seen one another at their worst.

"I'm nervous too." She pressed her lips together and hummed, then she lightly swatted his gloved hand. He likely felt the same way about his nerves. It was unexpected. They were simply going through the basic details of a traditional ceremony. "I've never seen you in white. It's a little funny."

"Because we're constantly fighting or because I'm not a blushing virgin?"

"Mm. Both. Though I won't complain about the latter. I like the sex."

She snorted and he chuckled at her reaction, then he took her left hand in his and she lightly squeezed his hand. When the pathways curved upwards, into the hills, he let her hand go and they navigated the rough route. On more than one occasion, she slid on the upward dirt pathway, but he grabbed her hand and steadied her. The hike left her slightly disheveled, but she enjoyed spending time with him, even though his attitude towards Kisame still infuriated her. She didn't forgive, and she didn't forget.

"Would your parents have approved of me?" Obito glanced in her direction, then he shrugged his shoulders. He likely didn't remember much about them, like she had already lost bits and pieces of her own parents.

"Probably not. You're a bad influence and most of what you say is vulgar." She scowled at him and shoved him away from her, though it was a playful shove. He smiled beneath his mask and she huffed at him, crossing her arms over her chest. "Your parents would have hated me."

"I don't know. You're incredibly driven and you are technically successful, plus you're insanely strong. You're a decent provider too. And you've already proven you can knock me up," she replied, using logic in her approach. He laughed at the end of her list, because it was funny to imagine them being a normal couple or a normal family. "They would expect grandchildren, and we would be required to attend weekly meals where my mother would still point out our shortcomings and praise my older brother and his chubby wife."

"Do you wish they were here to witness the wedding ceremony?"

"Do you wish your parents were here to witness the ceremony?"

"I do."

"Me too."

They stopped by a river winding through the hills to drink some water and pass some time during the hottest part of the day. After they drank, she sat by the riverside, removed her sandals, and put her feet in the cool water. Obito dropped down beside her, though he kept his feet out of the water. She felt cheated, because she hadn't had the chance to know Obito's family, and he hadn't had the chance to know hers. Their wedding would be a lonely one, even though she repeatedly reassured herself that Obito was all she needed. She imagined a better life for them, even though it was just a daydream. Their imaginary life was a happier one.

"Do you have a picture of your parents?" She didn't know what they looked like, so curiosity got the best of her. He hesitated, clearly trying to remember if he'd taken any pictures from his childhood. Kana had no pictures, so she had nothing to share. Obito had seen her little family, even if he didn't know them as anything more than corpses.

"I don't. I didn't take anything from my old apartment. To be honest, I don't even remember what they look like anymore. I remember my grandmother. She was in my life a little longer. She encouraged me to follow my dreams. She'd be disappointed," Obito answered, shrugging his shoulders. Kana pulled her feet from the stream and turned towards him. After removing his mask, she handed it to him to hold.

"Look at me. Don't fight me," she said, placing her hands on his cheeks. They made eye contact and she activated her sharingan. Pulling memories for the sake of pulling memories was something new. She'd never used her gift for anything positive. She used her gifts to make people suffer. "Can you see them?"

He saw something, judging by his unfocused eyes. They still had a connection while she tried to draw on his old memories. Bits and pieces became clear and fresh. She couldn't share in the moment, not when she was focused on bringing his childhood to life again. She stopped when he closed his eyes and she waited for his reaction. Instead of speaking, he opened his eyes and caught her in a genjutsu. He looked a lot like his father. She glimpsed brief moments of his parents, even recalling the sound of their voices, but the one image that rose above the others was a family picture, where his mother held him as a baby. When he ended the genjutsu, he shifted his focus to the river. He hid his own feelings. They liked to do that too much.

"You look like your dad," Kana shared, earning a small nod from him. "Your mom was beautiful," she added, as if he didn't know his parents had been a lovely couple. She rested a hand on his thigh, so he looked down at her hand. She didn't know what to say to make the moment less painful for him. She regretted torturing him with the past when she'd thought he would appreciate seeing his parents again.

"Thank you. It was like being with them all over again," he admitted, turning his head to meet her eyes. She leaned in and kissed him, so he turned towards her and deepened the kiss. When they stopped kissing, she rested her forehead against his and closed her eyes. "You're beautiful," he complimented her, causing her to kiss him again. She parted her lips and they made out in the afternoon sun.

"You're a bastard sometimes, but I can't get enough of you. You're sweet, when you want to be, and you're so fucking sexy that it's unfair," she sighed, the words spoken when they stopped to breathe. He kissed her on the lips, then on her jaw, and then on her neck. "Take me here." She gripped his shirt in her hands and he moved toward her, following her as she lay back in the grass. “I want to spend the rest of our time together. Will you do that for me?” She knew it was time wasted, time taken from plotting out his course of action, but she still wanted him in a desperate way. He grasped the zipper on her romper and slowly began to tug it down the length of her chest to her stomach.

“Come with me to the summit.”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

He kissed down her chest, his lips lingering between her breasts, then he continued unzipping her romper. He let her sit up enough to slip her arms from the sleeves, then he tugged the clothing down until it bunched up on her thighs. She forced the clothing down farther on her legs, but he finished removing the romper, leaving her in her panties, under the warmth of the sun. With both of them being sensors, she had no doubt that they could avoid anyone at risk of disturbing them, so she shoved his shirt up to reveal his abs, pushing it up until he finally leaned back on his heels to remove his shirt. She ran her hands over his muscles, dragging her fingertips along his skin. She thought he might pin her wrists down, but he let her touch him. She squeezed his biceps and slid her hands down his arms until she could lace their fingers together. She was caught off guard when he pinned her wrists against the grass with one hand while he rolled his hips forward to slide his clothed cock against her panties.

When he released his hold on her wrists, her hands went to the front of his pants, where she unbuttoned and unzipped them. Unlike her, he didn’t intend to fully undress, but she squeezed his ass and continued shoving his pants down until he took the hint and removed his pants. She gripped his hard cock through his boxers and he slowly thrust his hips forward so she stroked him. He lowered his boxers enough for her to free his cock, then she nudged the tip against her panties. He pushed her panties to the side, and she knew exactly what he had in mind. She pulled her panties farther to the right to uncover her clit, then he slowly massaged it with his index and middle fingers. She mapped out every inch of him with her sharingan, trying to treasure the moment, with the clear, blue sky in the background.

As he pushed into her, she tangled her fingers in the green grass and closed her eyes for a moment, focusing on the feeling of being full. He squeezed one of her breasts in his hand as he pulled out and pushed back in again, hitting the sensitive spot just inside of her. His hand went from her breast to her clit, where he teased her with quick movements until she gasped and clenched her eyes shut, then his touch vanished and she was left with his cock alone. The first signs of her impending orgasm faded. She squeezed her own breasts as he made every thrust slow and deep. He paused to kiss her whenever she moaned for him, smothering her sounds with his lips and tongue. She felt his fingers against her clit again and her thighs shook as she struggled to process the stimulation and overall pleasure he made her feel. She wanted every day to be so wonderful.

“Press down harder,” she begged, loving the pressure applied by his fingers. She began to meet his thrusts, and his fingers, wet from her, slid over her clit roughly. He teased her with little circles that did nothing, then rough motions from side to side that had her fingers and toes curling. “Don’t stop,” she moaned, as if he had ever considered leaving her wanting, dying for his touch.

“Are you close?” He asked the question with his mouth near her ear, the deep tone of his voice, like a purr, had her feeling too hot. She arched into him, chasing the feel of his chest against her breasts. Giving up her hold on the broken blades of grass, she dug her fingertips into his back. “Should I stop?” It was a teasing tone, a temporary distraction that left her digging her nails into his skin, marking him as her own. “Kana,” he breathed, the way he groaned her name sending a pleasant chill up her spine.

“Obito,” she moaned in turn, wanting all of him flesh against her.

He pulled out and entered her, teasing her and enjoying the tightness he felt as he entered her over and over again. He’d learned the signs signaling that she was close to an orgasm. Her walls grew tighter around him, the added pressure against his cock making him groan her name again. And she answered with his name leaving her tingling lips. His movements grew shallow, and he focused his attention on her clit. With his slow thrusts, he quickly rubbed over her clit, side-to-side motions that had her dragging her hands down his arms, to the point where their bodies met, then back again. When she came, she threw her head back and cried out his name, the last vowel dragged out as she rode the lasting moments of pleasure. Her whole body was tense, and it stayed that way as he rushed her through another orgasm.

When he came, he came inside of her and he groaned her name, his thrusts growing slower until he came to a stop. Their heavy breathing was all the noise they had, besides the sound of the river. As she thought, when he pulled out, he slid her panties back into place, trapping his cum. She made a face at him, but he rubbed her clit again, throwing her into an orgasm that drew a whine from her.

“I want you to wear these until we get to the shrine,” Obito told her, the thought of it turning him on. He snapped the band on her panties and she nodded without thinking, the thought of their secret almost thrilling. No one would know but them. “You know I love you,” he said, after they’d steadied their racing hearts. She nodded again, then she pulled him in for a series of kisses that had him moaning against her lips.

“I want you.”

“Again?”

“I’ll always want you, Obito.”

“Always, huh? That’s a very long time.”

His smile pulled on his scars, so she brushed a thumb over his lips. The number of smiles shared between them was limited by the time they had left. The ceremony that had meant little to her suddenly mattered a great deal. She wanted to wear white for him. She wanted to see him dressed in his formal clothing. She wanted many things she didn’t deserve, but she swore she deserved him, if nothing else. So they made love again in the afternoon sunshine, where she hoped every touch meant just as much to him as it did to her.

Chapter Text

She imagined attendees observing them as they exchanged vows and sipped sake, but her imagination couldn’t make something of nothing. He looked debonair in his haori and hakama, but highly unlike himself, making her realize that the motions they were going through amounted to less than she’d first thought. If their imaginary attendees had been real, she was sure she would have felt differently, but then it would have been another Obito altogether. Her version didn’t wear formal clothing, her version didn’t share vows that drew on memories tinted with nothing but young love—her version was rough around the edges, jagged and dangerous, and his vows were stilted, reeking of words meant to please their imaginary family members. And she found herself trying not to mention their violent physical exchanges, their damning verbal exchanges, that always turned to something softer. Her vows included that she would stand by him until the end, with the end being uncertain. When they were wed before the gods, she didn’t feel like a changed woman. She still felt like the same Kana. That shouldn’t have been as disappointing as it was.

“You hated it.”

“Your vows were shit.”

“Yours weren’t that great either, Kana.”

“Probably because I just recited what I heard my sister-in-law say.” He laughed, and that made her laugh, because they were equally out of their element. Alone, on the steps leading to the ancient shrine, he took her hands in his and their eyes met. He leaned in to kiss her and she rested her hands on his shoulders and met him halfway. “You’re so suave. Do you think we can make it a few days without making one another absolutely miserable?” Obito snorted at her words and stole another kiss from her.

“I should have included it in my vows that were apparently shit,” Obito sarcastically remarked, making her laugh again. They’d brought their shinobi attire to change, but neither of them seemed ready to step back into those proverbial shoes. Instead, she looped her arm through his and they walked around the grounds. “This shrine was built to offset the karmic cost of the black market. It clearly failed, but it’s not bad. We should have come here sooner. I should have married you a lot sooner.” For Obito, the words constituted an apology and an acknowledgement that they had little time left together.

“This feels a lot like a goodbye,” she admitted, disliking the shift in tone. She thought he might bring up the war, just to completely sour the conversation. The topic was inevitable, as the war would require careful planning, but she wanted to pretend for a little while longer. She wanted to pretend that she had every part of him, even though he left her wanting. “You know,” she began, drawing his attention to her, “I would die for you. And I don’t expect you to say the same thing.” His surprised expression, eyes wide and lips slightly parted, made her look away. There was something more comforting about death than an eternal genjutsu.

“I won’t let that happen,” he reassured her, removing the hat from her head and pulling the pins from her hair. Her hair fell down her back and he rested his hand atop her hair as he kissed her. “That’s not how this is going to end for you or for us.” His words had a finality that made her wholly believe him, as if he could truly guarantee her survival. In the end, she would stand by her words, and she couldn’t see him keeping his unnamed promise to her. “I mean it,” he said, cementing the words.

Before they left the shrine, they watched the sunset together, both of them thinking about a variety of things, then they left the Land of Silence for kamui, where they should have changed their clothing and moved on with their lives; instead, Obito took them to ryokan she’d never seen before, in a country she couldn’t immediately name. She didn’t spend much time in the Land of Hot Water, and she didn’t recognize the ryokan he’d clearly visited in the past. Far from the hidden village of Yugakure, no one recognized them. The people saw a newly wed couple looking for a pleasant retreat, and the staff happily congratulated them on their marriage. It was another moment for playing pretend, for giving in to the limits of her imagination. In the village of Kannawa, they had fine views of the mountains and the slice of green paradise surrounding the ryokan. It was a classy escape, something unexpected, and the location left her wondering how Obito had stumbled across the establishment in the first place.

They took the best room in the ryokan, a request heavily supported by the sharingan. Overall the stone pathways and small bridges connecting different sections of the building made her feel as if they’d been transported to the Warring States era. It paired well with their traditional wedding, but she preferred the effort more. Their room had a private bathroom, a sitting area, and a bedroom, with the bedroom separated with fusuma. She didn’t know what to do with the luxury provided by the ryokan. The only vacation she’d enjoyed during her time as a Konoha shinobi was when she infiltrated a resort town to kill off the thugs gripping the area with an iron fist. And she hadn’t enjoyed herself, because it was solely about work. Kannawa was very different, with a calm, peaceful air.

“How the hell did you stumble across this place?” She turned in a small circle in their room, feeling like an outsider, while Obito watched her subtle reactions to the new environment. He was trying, that much was obvious, with the place seemingly serving as another apology.

“Team Minato had a mission in the area and my sensei rewarded us with a night’s stay. He didn’t spend much time with us here. We found out later that he had his own mission, one secondary and much more important than our own. Kakashi hated it here. He complained the entire time and scolded Rin and I for enjoying ourselves. He was a bastard, and he’s still a bastard. Huh. Big surprise there,” Obito explained, shrugging his shoulders at the end. Kana had never known the younger version of Kakashi, not in any way that could have been described as a friendship, but she’d heard that he’d been difficult to work worth; Kakashi had described his younger self as a little shit on more than one occasion. “It was the last mission my team took together before Kakashi took over as captain and led us to Kannabi.”

“You should have drowned him in the hot spring,” Kana blandly remarked. Obito made a noise of agreement. It was easier to talk about Kannabi, but she chose not to stay on the subject. The moment wasn’t about their childhood, or negative moments throughout their lives. And Obito had lived a much harder life than her own. “Do you still think about him?” She didn’t know why she asked, and it was obvious by her choice to mumble.

“I don’t. I can give him happiness if he chooses to accept my reality; otherwise, he’s no better than fodder. How you feel about him won’t stop me from slaughtering him. You say you’d die for me, then you can stop your cat-and-mouse game with him and let me end his pathetic existence.”

“A simple ‘no’ would have sufficed.”

“With you, I doubt that.” Kana frowned at him and turned her head away, signaling that she would ignore him until he said something to remedy his response. He sighed and moved to catch her gaze. He placed his hands on her shoulders to keep her from walking away, forcing her to look at him. “I think about you. That’s who I think about. I love you, Kana. There’s a reason you’re still here while Akatsuki ultimately folded.”

“I’m still here because you love me? It has nothing to do with my abilities? It has nothing to do with my loyalty? Rephrase that.”

“You asked me if we could survive a few days without being absolutely miserable? You’re testing that right now.”

“We survived a couple of hours, so I think that’s an accomplishment.”

He slapped her ass and gave up the conversation. He left her standing in the middle of the living room to change out of his clothing. He opened the fusuma and she watched him open a storage scroll for his shinobi attire. Instead of pushing the conversation, she joined him in the bedroom, where she began to undress him. As the clothing fell away, she kissed him on the lips, then down to his neck, while his hands went to her hips. Instead of having sex, Obito took control and began undressing her in return. She leaned against him when he was done and chose to let the subject go, because she’d received a decent response and was highly critical of the words. They shared a shower, where they did nothing but clean up, then they went to their private hot spring and relaxed in the heated water. She’d put her hair up to keep it from getting soaked, and he kept toying with it.

“We can talk about the war,” she relented, thinking the silence was due to his hesitation. He turned his head to see her, then he leaned against the side of the pool. When he didn’t respond, she nudged his shoulder. “I know you’re dying to talk about Tsuki no Me, as usual. Go ahead. Start the conversation.”

“I’m spending quality time with my wife, so that can wait. We both know if I brought it up, you’d still get pissed off and storm off. If you want to talk about it, feel free, but I’m going to enjoy the night,” he responded, especially smug. She snorted at his small smirk and shook her head, but she didn’t change the course of the conversation. He seemed sincere, but she was still suspicious of his behavior. Maybe the wedding had changed him. “I don’t have an angle, Kana. Stop overthinking this and relax. You’re tense.”

“I want to lead.”

“Then you’ll lead.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes, that’s it. I trust you. If you want to lead part of my army, then you’ll lead part of my army. Kabuto has perfected the impure world reincarnation, so we’ll be resurrecting shinobi to help our numbers. I’ll figure out the specifics in a few days. I want everything fine-tuned without giving the nations enough time to achieve the same thing.”

He shifted in the hot spring and draped an arm around her shoulders, lightly pulling her against his side. His approach made sense, and nothing about the use of the impure world reincarnation summoning jutsu bothered her, but she still had a grudge. She didn’t want to work with Kabuto. Obito knew that she hated Kabuto, which meant that Kabuto was an important part of their narrative. He had a purpose that she would learn to tolerate. They lapsed into another heavy silence, so she relaxed in the water and rested her head against him. She could think of so many quality shinobi for the army, but the song from the crickets distracted her, and those thoughts came to a gradual end. They stayed in the water until she felt tired, then she left him in the hot spring and changed into a yukata provided by the ryokan. As she was setting up their bed, Obito left the hot spring and changed into his own yukata.

She sat down on the futon mattress and he joined her, both of them still flushed from the heat of the hot spring. When they slipped under the covers, he curled up at her back and pulled her against him, where she acknowledged that her thoughts were clear and quiet. He kissed her shoulder, so she pulled his arm around her and settled against the warmth of his body. His close proximity soothed her in a way that the hot spring couldn’t. She lay there for several minutes, then she sighed to herself and gave up on an easy transition to sleep. She knew he was still awake, so she idly ran her hand along his forearm. His arm had been thrown over her waist, but his hand soon wandered to her breasts.

“What happens if they form an alliance?”

“Somehow I don’t think this conversation is fit for foreplay.”

“Maybe war turns me on.”

“Does it get you wet?”

She pressed her lips together to smother a laugh, while he lightly squeezed one of her breasts. He pulled her over, forcing her onto her back, while he leaned up on his elbow. He looked down at her, one brow arched in question, while she caressed his left cheek. He played with the knot on her yukata while her eyes roamed over his face. He’d likely already thought of the possibility of an alliance. He was always several steps ahead, his analytical approach to life making him successful. It gave her confidence she didn’t know she was lacking. He could handle a war. He’d proven himself as the manipulative force behind all of Akatsuki’s successes, despite the loss of the group’s members. He had most of what he wanted. Only two jinchuriki remained. War would give him the rest of what he wanted. He leaned down to capture her lips in a kiss, so she tugged him down and enjoyed the feel of his body against hers.

“I’ll handle everything,” he promised her as he undid the knot keeping her yukata closed and in place. She believed him; she didn’t doubt him. “You aren’t wearing anything underneath,” he noted, amused by his good luck and her quick thinking. She laughed at the expression on his face and dragged him into another kiss.

Chapter Text

She sat at the low table and cleaned her wakizashi, careful not to nick herself on the sharp edge and angled point. Obito sat across from her and watched her in silence, likely taken by thoughts of the impending summit. They were dressed, ready to crash the proverbial party, but they still had hours before the kage finally met. She chose to distract herself with her sword, knowing that she would rely on it in the future. She was going to war again, as if she were a young girl on the precipice of the third war. Sometimes she felt like pinching herself to validate her presence and awareness. She'd grown from a genin forced into a war that didn't belong to her to a missing nin instigating the world's next big tragedy. And she did everything for the man seated on the other side of the table. There was no lying to herself, no game of self-deception, just a quiet acknowledgement that there was no turning back. To her, peace didn't matter—Obito mattered.

"Have you decided on division leaders?" She glanced in his direction, then she reached for her sheath and put her blade away. Obito lightly drummed his fingers on the table, contemplating where they stood after their days of brainstorming sessions. "I know you have an exhausting list of reanimated shinobi to look over, thanks to Kabuto losing his fucking mind and turning into a snake man."

"He's eccentric, isn't he?" She placed her hands over his to stop the annoying sound of his fingers tapping against the table. He was restless, though not because of his nerves or a lack of confidence; he craved order and wanted everything to fall together in a particular way. He was ready to fight. "You won't have anything to do with him, and he's aware. I don't trust you around him. I need you both alive."

"And you love me."

"Yes, Kana, and I love you and value you as my wife."

"Well that reeks of sarcasm."

"Did I marry a child?" She flipped him off and kicked his knee from under the table. He shoved the table at her and it hit her in the stomach, so she shoved it back at him. He won the battle of strength, so she stood and stomped on the table, breaking it in half. "That's mature," he replied, rolling his eyes at her. Before she could leave the room, he wrapped a hand around her ankle. "I'd like you to lead the swordsmen of the mist into battle. Being a sensor, your skills would pair well with the mist. If you encounter trouble?"

"Regroup and signal for the Zetsu to provide aid. I still don't think it's wise to rely on them. And I'm good to go on my secondary mission?" She thought the war would serve as the distraction she needed to fully seal away Black Zetsu. Obito didn't understand her insistence on disposing of the creepy shadow of a creature, since he acknowledged it as Madara’s will embodied. She didn't buy that story. Black Zetsu didn't have the same feel as a shinobi. "You promised."

"It's a secondary mission. If it conflicts with you leading the swordsmen, then the promise is void. Are we in agreement?" He released his hold on her ankle, so she returned to her zabuton. The conversation was worth staying. He fixed her with a hard stare that she easily matched. "We play by my rules, and I know you have trouble with authority."

"Fine. For what it's worth, I agree with my position. I'm great with kenjutsu," she shared, shifting on her zabuton to cross her legs. He continued staring at her, so she held up her hands, her palms facing him. "I'll listen to you, even though you failed your first chunin exam because you choked on your grandma candy." His expression soured and she smiled.

"I shouldn't have told you about that."

"Probably not."

They stayed at the ryokan until the kage had assembled, then Kana put Obito's Madara mask on him and she stepped into his open arms. He was alive with excitement, to the point that she felt the emotion in his chakra signature. His chakra was still tinged with darkness, but she no longer felt the pull of the curse seal. She didn’t need to loop her arms around him, but she did, treasuring the moment and the memories of their time in the ryokan. The transition was quick and effortless, just them passing through the cold, stagnant air of kamui into the snow and ice of the Land of Iron. Sasuke was waiting for them when they arrived, so she kept her mouth shut and greeted him with a nod, one he returned. For the moment, they were allies, even if she hated it.

“I want to go in first,” Sasuke stated, as if his words left no room for debate. Kana flicked his forehead and he glared at her, silently daring her to do it again.

“You aren’t going in first, kid. You haven’t earned that right. And if you keep glaring at me, I’m going to rip one of your brother’s eyes out and you can make a living as a pirate,” Kana frowned, standing her ground as he made a step in her direction. She heard Obito sigh, so she snapped her mouth closed.

“Kana will go in first, and you’ll follow. We know the four kage and the guards accompanying them, but there’s a few familiar faces in there. Kakashi is the sixth Hokage candidate,” Obito informed them, something Kana didn't know. She’d assumed that he’d accompanied someone else, another candidate, which meant the other two chakra signatures she felt were his guards. Obito didn’t recognize them, and Sasuke had no knowledge of the inhabitants, so he turned to her, silently prompting her to share the information she collected by sensing.

“Shiranui Genma, a tokubetsu jonin. He’s been assigned to guard duty for the Hokage for years, dating back to the fourth Hokage’s time. He’s good with ninjutsu, but better known for fighting with weapons, specifically senbon. He’s fast too. The second guard makes sense. It’s Namiashi Raido, another tokubetsu jonin. He’s a veteran guard too. I haven’t worked with him, but I’ve seen the blade he frequently uses. It’s nice. Don’t let it near you.”

Obito had little to worry about, considering he planned on waiting until the very end to reveal his cards, so the warning was for Sasuke. Kokuto was a unique blade, one she admired. All black, the blade didn’t reflect light, making it perfect for assassination missions. Raido always had a sweet smell that followed him, likely from the poisons he frequently used. She’d heard that he enjoyed using benzene, because it could occur naturally, and death wasn’t always instantaneous. Of the two guards, she was most interested in him. She didn’t need to share her opinion, because she saw the look of disapproval in the narrowing of Obito’s eye.

Their mission was simple: They would crash the summit, proving that they were brave enough and bold enough to challenge five kage at once; then Obito would give the leaders a choice that, without a doubt, would lead to a declaration of war; and then they would depart, leaving the leaders to decide how they would handle the threat. There was a high likelihood that they would find some way to band together, however unpleasant that would be for all parties. She thought that the most difficult one to convince would be the Tsuchikage, Onoki. She’d hoped the bastard would have died of old age.

“Let’s just go,” Sasuke muttered, turning away from them. Kana raised a hand to slap him in the back of the head, but Obito caught her wrist and shook his head at her. With a huff, she followed Sasuke, then she took a few hurried steps to walk by his side. “Did you know?” He didn’t look at her when he asked the vague question. She knew he was still absorbed with his late brother, that the hatred he’d once applied to Itachi had shifted to Konoha, and then to the world. Without the infinite tsukuyomi, he would never find peace. He didn’t even know the cause he supported.

“He never belonged there. I knew it from the moment we met. Itachi was foolish. He drove you into hating the village he loved. He wouldn’t want this life for you, but here you are. You’re foolish too, but I can’t blame you. In my opinion, hatred feels good, and it’s all-consuming. You can become obsessed with revenge,” she shared, shrugging her shoulders. He waited for her to say something of value to him, because acknowledging that Itachi had wanted better for him didn’t matter. He chose revenge, and he would keep choosing revenge. That was a character flaw that many Uchiha carried. “At the end of the day, revenge doesn’t fill the emptiness inside of you. It’s time for you to choose how you want to die. That’s where we are right now.”

“Hn.”

Infiltrating the building took most of their time, even with the aid of Zetsu. The distraction gave them an opportunity to approach the doors to the meeting space, where they quietly disagreed on how to crash the meeting. Sasuke kept pointing to the ceiling, while she kept jabbing a finger at the door. She shoved him back a step and knocked on the door three times. With Zetsu gone, the attention in the room shifted to their interruption. Sasuke chose to hide against the wall for a sneak attack, so she chose to mirror him. She signaled to wait until the door closed, then she tracked the lone chakra signature approaching the door. Sign language let her communicate with Sasuke, so she shared Genma's identity and claimed the strike for herself. Sasuke kept a hand on the hilt of his sword, but he nodded, motioning for her to lead. Genma closed the door behind him, so Kana whistled to get his attention.

Genma didn't waste his breath on her. He spat his senbon at her, so she deflected it with a kunai and lunged at him, blade aimed at his throat. He jumped back from the door, allowing Sasuke to gain entrance to the room. The fight she had was quick, with her deflecting his senbon to get close enough to strike him. He swung at her when she broke through his guard, so she drove her shoulder into him, sending him into one of the closed doors. He tried to strike her again, so she kicked him in the chest, sending him through the door. He slid across the ground, though he sent another senbon at her that she deflected and caught. She threw it into the room and stepped through the remains of the door, where she found the guards split between watching her and watching Sasuke.

"Kana," Kakashi greeted her, his expression hard. She liked the sound of her name on his lips. The last time they'd met, she and Obito had left him for dead, so she saw the anger and bitterness in his eye.

"It's good to see you again. I like your robes, very official. How's rebuilding your shitty village going?" They had a casual conversation, despite the guards tense and ready to strike. Wisely, Kakashi didn't signal for anyone to back down.

"It used to be your village, like it used to be Sasuke’s village. Coming here was the wrong decision. You're in a room full of elite shinobi and kage," Kakashi said, as if she didn't know the mess she'd walked into for Obito. Genma got to his feet and she pointed at the man.

"You mean like him?"

"Take her alive."

Sasuke dropped onto the table while she threw shuriken to keep their enemies at a distance. A puppet master from Sunagakure sent a puppet at Sasuke, so she aimed shuriken at the man, giving Sasuke time to cut an arm off of the puppet. He gave her backup by sending a kunai charged with lightning chakra at a large man from Iwagakure. Even though she didn't like Sasuke, he was a good partner in battle. She considered explosives, but the doors leading to the balcony crashed open, sending glass to the floor. The room went silent, and everyone paused their fights to observe another possible target. Obito sat on the small stone railing on the balcony, one of his feet raised where he'd kicked in the doors. Kana stood in front of Genma, the man's hand raised where he'd tried to grab her by her hair, while Sasuke stopped the swing of his blade meant to injure one of the shinobi from Kirigakure.

"Obito?"

Kakashi was the one to speak, and the surprise in his voice told Kana all she needed to know about him. He'd thought that he'd killed Obito, and the fact that he hadn't killed the man let him know that Obito was on a different level than himself. No one else recognized the name, which meant that Obito's true identity had remained a Konoha secret, something not shared with the rest of the nations, despite the man's presence in Akatsuki. Kana knocked Genma's hand aside, while Sasuke dropped down from the desk. Obito's entrance had been perfect, one that spoke of confidence, especially with the man's relaxed posture. Kana was proud to be standing in that room, surrounded by leaders once thought untouchable. It was a moment long overdue for their clan, and spoke of the lost possibilities of what an Uchiha could have done with control of Konoha.

"Hm. Obito? Never heard of him." Obito shrugged, as if his real identity meant nothing to him. Tobi was gone. Obito was buried deep within himself. For the foreseeable future, he was Madara, and that's what mattered. "It's nice to see everyone gathered together. It means I don't have to track you all down myself. I want to share my vision with you, and then I'll give you a choice, a test of your freewill."

"I'm done listening to this!"

"Who are you?"

"I want to hear what he has to say."

Raikage. Tsuchikage. Mizukage. And Kakashi and Gaara were utterly silent, both of them knowing firsthand the danger any member of Akatsuki represented, let alone one that had survived until the end. Obito rested his palms beside his thighs on the flat stone railing. In a show of lost hostility, Kana sheathed her wakizashi, and Sasuke quickly followed, slipping his own sword into its sheath. The room was tense, everyone poised to fight, but they listened.

"The shinobi system is broken, and it has been for some time. My vision is to bring peace to this world. I'm going to dismantle the oppressive system and erase the possibility of more wars. With an infinite tsukuyomi, you will all find peace in my new world. Anything you desire will be yours. It's paradise. It's my gift to you," Obito explained, weaving a solid tale to sell Tsuki no Me without giving away every detail. "You can accept the peace I create, or you can fight against it."

Kana never expected the leaders to accept Obito's plan, because she found nothing glamorous about it. Rotting away in a fake world given to them by a genjutsu wasn't her idea of peace. So when the kage and their guards declined his peace and belittled his plan, Kana wasn't surprised. War was inevitable, whether it was amongst the nations or against Obito's grand scheme fed to him by Madara. When Obito brushed his gloved hands together, the guards jerked forward a step, so Sasuke elbowed one and Kana restrained Genma in a choke hold with little pressure applied.

"Then I have no choice but to declare the Fourth Shinobi War."

With that, Obito tipped backwards and fell. In seconds, he was gone, safely hidden in kamui.

Kana released Genma and kicked him in the back of his knee, but he swung around and clipped her with a right hook that hit her temple. As Sasuke passed her, he grabbed her arm, and they ran. The pursuit didn't last very long, because regrouping was more important. She didn't realize Sasuke had a hold of her hand until she acknowledged its warmth. They weren't afraid, so it was a brief acknowledgement that they faced the world together. They were comrades, and as callous and traumatized as they were, they still understood what that meant.

Chapter Text

"How long have you known him?"

"About ten years."

"Can we even trust him? He was tossed out on his ass for being a psychopath."

"Some would argue that you and I are psychopaths."

Sasuke gave up on his game of questions and returned to feeding sticks to the dying campfire. Her legs crossed, she leaned back on her palms and tipped her head back to see the starry night sky. She'd hoped to see the first touch of winter, but she highly doubted they would survive that long. She and Sasuke would die in battle or die while under the influence of the genjutsu. The weather wouldn't matter. She'd had ample time to accept her demise, but she'd wasted years just living in the moment, trying her best to see all that life had to offer her. And life had offered her Obito, so much of him that she'd drowned in her feelings for him. He would do his best to protect her. She wholly believed in him and his determination to save her, even if they both knew that he would eventually disappoint her. For the first time, she wondered what her life would have been like if she'd followed Kakashi, if she'd walked back to the village she betrayed and paid entry with the secrets of Akatsuki. He would have made her so happy.

The thought disappeared when she felt the warmth of embers against her senses. Obito dropped two dead rabbits by Sasuke, a silent offering for them, something to occupy the teen. He sat down beside her, and she felt the overwhelming desire to touch him, to pick him apart until she saw her Obito again, to know that he was there. Instead, she stretched her legs out and warmed her feet by the fire. She watched Sasuke skin the rabbits, feeling as if someone were slowly skinning her alive. Obito turned his head and he caught her eye. Her chakra signature was odd, slowly overtaken with something unlike her typical wildness. She had a light bruise on her face from Genma punching her, but it no longer ached. Obito's fingers twitched, a subtle sign that he wanted to touch her too.

"Are you capable of fighting Naruto? You have some sort of attachment to him," Obito questioned, clearly doubting Sasuke's ability to spit on the relationship he'd once had with Naruto. Sasuke savagely tore a strip of fur from the rabbit and she saw the telltale sign of amusement in Obito's visible eye. "Are you capable of killing Naruto?"

"If he stands in my way. He no longer matters to me. Revenge matters to me. I want Konoha to bow to me," Sasuke admitted, his eyes dark, even with the light of the fire. He was broken, like they were broken, and his words stirred something in her. She recalled her desire to hurt Kakashi, to pick at him and pick at him until there was nothing left. "Are you capable of killing Kakashi?" He looked at her, and she thought of the home they'd built in Kirigakure, how Kakashi had held her through the nights.

"Kakashi is mine. I think I should repay him for betraying me," Obito cut in, earning a sharp nod from Sasuke.

Kakashi must have brought her up; even though she wanted to ask Sasuke about Kakashi, she wisely kept her mouth shut. Faced with the end of the world, the festering wound leftover from Kakashi's abandonment no longer mattered. She wondered if Obito could read her thoughts, because he turned his head to meet her eyes. There was a silent question, obvious doubt, but he didn’t ask her about her feelings or her newfound ability to let things go. She took over cooking one of the rabbits, since Obito obviously had no interest in eating. He didn’t want to move his mask, which was understandable, since Sasuke wholly believed he was Madara. He should have brought up Sasuke’s failed mission to capture the eight tails, but he was silent, clearly lost in his thoughts. They would have to try again, at some point, but he likely meant to finish the process during the war. She hoped Naruto would be stupid enough to reveal his location.

Kisame was an unknown element, because he wasn’t present. She felt one chakra signature when she searched for him, which meant that he’d likely lost his sword. The jinchuriki had full access to the infamous blade, which made things more complicated. It worked for Killer Bee, a surprise for Obito and herself. When the rabbits were done, she and Sasuke picked at the food. Without seasoning, the meal lacked a lot of taste, but it was something on their stomachs, and they were both starving. Even though she knew Obito would decline, she still offered him some of her food. He held up a gloved hand to refuse, so she resumed eating, mulling over her role in the war and her insistence on immobilizing Black Zetsu.

“You mentioned Kabuto. Isn’t he the man from the chunin exams?” Sasuke frowned at the rabbit he held, so she knew he didn’t care for the man. It felt nice to share the same opinion of the man, despite Kabuto’s obvious usefulness. Obito nodded, so Sasuke made a noise of acknowledgement. “I don’t trust him,” Sasuke shared, as if that would surprise them. Kana smiled to herself, though she quickly hid it by finishing off her rabbit.

“Don’t mistake my willingness to work with him as a sign that I trust him. You’d be a fool to trust someone like him. I don’t expect you to work with him, like I don’t expect Kana to work with him. When Naruto shows up, he will be your priority.”

“You think he’ll pull a stupid stunt and show up. That’s a given.”

“I don’t think he should be confronting Naruto alone,” Kana cut in, disagreeing with Obito’s approach to the war. She had a nagging feeling that Sasuke would fall victim to Naruto’s ability to reach people. She had already considered the possibility of Naruto reaching Obito. “You’re underestimating that loser kid. If you want the job done right, you’d be there too, or you could let me go. We’re all shifting positions because there will be too many battlefields and battalions for us to focus on one or two areas.” Obito tipped his head to the side, clearly thinking over his strategy for the best position of the troops. He had knowledge she lacked.

“You’ll be leading the Swordsmen of the Mist, and later switching focus to work with Akatsuki. Sasuke can work with me when I lead the jinchuriki into battle. I’d rather not have you around Kakashi. It’s nothing personal, or maybe it is,” Obito replied, shrugging his shoulders. Sasuke looked between them, clearly interested in Obito’s reasoning for keeping her away from Kakashi. She understood why Obito wanted to keep her away from Kakashi, because she didn’t know what would happen. “We still have Kisame scouting, so you’ll be retrieving him, if we can’t get to him. Can I trust you with that, Kana?”

“Absolutely,” she nodded, her fingers crossed behind her back. She had every intention of ensuring Kisame’s demise. Obito stared at her in a way that felt like he was staring into her very soul. She kept a straight face, but he knew her too well. With a sigh, she turned her head away, “I can’t promise he’ll survive if it comes to his life or mine, but I’ll do my best. That’s all you’re going to get from me.”

“Let’s move. The summit is over, so the parties are separating and some are preparing to depart,” Obito informed them, already getting to his feet. She and Sasuke broke down camp as Obito stared in the direction of the summit, likely tracking them from where he stood, just like she tracked them as she readied to leave. “I’ll be going over the specifics with Kabuto and preparing the Zetsu army. We need spies.” She didn’t want him to go, but she understood their overall mission was more important, and information was the key to their success. “I want you to make contact with Yukigakure, Yumegakure, and Kusagakure. I want to pull from their troops. Make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid,” Obito said, adding the latter for Sasuke.

“Oh fuck you. You honestly think they’re going to fight for our cause?”

“They will when you promise them revenge they can’t achieve on their own. Don’t forget their heavy losses during the Third Shinobi War. For them, vengeance can be achieved on the path to peace. If you think you can gather more to our side, do it.”

Obito glanced in Sasuke’s direction, then he turned and walked into the darkness, where he disappeared into kamui and reappeared at the Mountain’s Graveyard. Their mission would take time, due to the time needed for travel from village to village, and she already had another addition to their list. Hoshigakure wanted a place in the world, so manipulating them would be an easy mission, and although Obito didn’t mention Amegakure, she believed she could convince them to join the mission. They didn’t know what had happened to their angel, Konan, only that she never returned. She could easily blame Konoha. Sasuke whistled to get her attention, so her expression fell. She told herself that he made a good partner, but he still irritated her. She waved a hand, motioning for him to follow her. Their first stop was Yukigakure, since they were already leaving the Land of Lightning—their path would take them through the Land of Snow.

She thought Sasuke would fill the silence with a one-sided attempt at a conversation, but he seemed content to focus on their winding journey through the mountains. The barren, rocky mountains soon gave way to mountains decorated in layers of snow. Their boots took them through the deep snow and the cloaks they wore kept their body heat, which made traversing the steep mountains and passes easier. She was surprised to see the infamous Kazahana Castle rebuilt in the same spot where the remains of the original castle had stood. Doto still had the nation in his iron grasp, but the genjutsu Obito had placed him under was still in place. Recruiting the daimyo meant recruiting the hidden village’s forces, which would be a strong addition to Obito’s army. Yukigakure’s advanced technology would aid them. The nation still had airships from the Third Shinobi War, and they had volley guns to fire multiple kunai at once. The chakra armor had hopefully advanced under Doto’s careful care and Obito’s subtle manipulation. The armor made shinobi practically immune to ninjutsu and genjutsu.

“Madara mentioned the hidden village by name. Why would Madara mention Yukigakure? I’ve had a mission here and the shinobi weren’t an issue. They’re on peaceful terms with Konoha,” Sasuke informed her, his voice muffled by the snow around them and the snow falling from above. Kana stopped on the road and pointed at the castle in the distance, its white stone matching perfectly with its snowy surroundings. He didn’t see anything when he looked at the castle, just white stone against a backdrop of snowy mountains. “What am I supposed to be seeing? It looks like a prison.”

“It’s a rebuilt version of the previous Kazahana Castle. In the past, Madara and I killed the daimyo, Sosetsu, to replace him with his brother, Doto. Doto is a puppet ruler and has been for years. Akatsuki has had this nation and I’ve been here rather frequently. You saw what we wanted you to see. We’re going to meet with Doto and get approval for reinforcements,” Kana explained, glancing in his direction to see his brows furrowed. She could tell he was thinking about his past mission and looking for clues that he might have missed. “Madara is a planner. He’s been working on this since before you were born. Don’t blame yourself for not seeing the underneath. Let’s go, before the snow gets any worse. I don’t want to stay here.”

He let her lead the way when the path became too narrow for them to walk side-by-side. The conditions deteriorated faster than she would have liked, which left them in near whiteout conditions. They used their sharingan to navigate, but the white was still blinding. When they reached the castle, she requested a meeting with the daimyo, and when that didn’t get her what she wanted, she captured the two guards in a genjutsu and told them to take her to the daimyo. The interior of the castle was just as bland as the exterior, though Doto clearly lived in luxury. The entryway was chilly, and the cold and snow rushed in when the doors were opened. The guards were quick to shut the doors behind them, then they led them through the hall, bypassing grand rooms on either side. Kana thought of the last time she’d been to the mountain, how the ceiling had collapsed in the castle and Obito had frozen. They were different people then.

Doto had a formal office in a back room of the first floor. The guards left them there to retrieve Doto, obviously aware of the importance of Kana's meeting, although they lacked details. Sasuke approached the row of windows that had frost gathered on the thick glass, then he looked down at the dark pass that split and went around the Kazahana mountain. He had good instincts to check the security of the room, while she came off arrogant and claimed one of the zabuton in front of the low desk. Sasuke didn't move from the windows until the office door slid open and Doto entered the room. They gathered around the desk, with Sasuke claiming the available zabuton to her right. Unsurprisingly, Doto was ill-prepared for guests. He'd had enough sense to change from his pajamas, but she wouldn't have cared if he'd shown up in them, as long as he showed up.

"I wasn't expecting you." Doto looked unhappy to see her, but she wasn't surprised. He recalled their fight in the streets and everything about his betrayal, so he likely wondered why she'd shown up on his doorstep at midnight, in the middle of a snowstorm. "Is this your new partner? He's a child," Doto frowned, judging her. Judging by Sasuke's scowl, the boy didn't appreciate being called a child.

"He's here to kick your ass if you don't cooperate. I came here for an alliance. The great nations are preparing to go to war with us, and we'd greatly appreciate your assistance," Kana informed him, her eyes bleeding red for her sharingan. He caught her gaze and she saw his severe expression relax. She drew on his loyalty without his awareness. "Your hidden village is well known for its advanced technology, specifically aircrafts and chakra armor. We could use those. In exchange, we'll help you crush Kumogakure for invading your country during the last war. Your brother pissed away anything gained from production during wartime, so it left your hidden village near bankruptcy. You've led this nation to recovery, or so I've heard."

"Revenge? What would I really win by joining you?"

"You're right. My apologies. You don't have a choice. You work with Madara, or my friend and I are going to kill you and make this nation into another bloody battlefield. I will make sure nothing is left."

"I want land and financial reparations from Kumogakure."

"Done," Kana lied, leaning forward to shake his hand and seal the deal. The sharingan faded, and the temporary spell vanished. He would think he'd made a fantastic deal for the Land of Snow, but he would never see the spoils. Land wouldn't matter. Money wouldn't matter. "Is this storm supposed to pass? I don't want to stay in your shitty castle," she frowned, following Sasuke's gaze to the row of windows.

"I kindly offer you a place to stay for the evening. That's the extent of my hospitality, and you're lucky you're getting that," Doto muttered, answering her without really answering her. She wrinkled her nose at the look of the weather beyond the windows. Beside her, Sasuke silently weighed in on the offer before speaking.

"I think we should take the offer. There are no breaks in the clouds and it's more than a simple whiteout. It's a blizzard," Sasuke shared, turning his head to meet her dark eyes. He looked too much like his mother, but she looked into Itachi's eyes.

"Fine. We leave as soon as the weather breaks. We have places to be."

"I'll have my guards lead you to your rooms."

"Room. He has separation anxiety." Doto looked between them, then he stood and left the room. Sasuke arched a brow at her obvious lie, so she shrugged her shoulders. "Do you want to be alone in a foreign place? If you plan on getting sleep tonight, you'll listen to me and accept one room. We can trap it to hell, and we'll both wake up refreshed and ready for the day," she explained, with some sarcasm in her reply. He contemplated her explanation, then he sighed and nodded.

"Fine. I'll take the spare futon. I'm not sharing a bed with you," he stated, rising from his zabuton. She laughed at his words and got to her feet. She recalled the first time she'd faced the one-bed scenario and how that moment had changed her life. Obito would skin Sasuke alive.

"Trust me, the feeling is mutual," she smiled and patted his left cheek. He rolled his eyes at her behavior, then they went into the hall to let the guards escort them to their room. She waited for the guards to get ahead of them, then she spoke to Sasuke. "After this, we'll head for the coast. I want to end in the west. And just so you know, I get seasick." He made a disgusted face and looked away from her. She patted his cheek again and he slapped her hand aside.

"I don't know how Madara can put up with your attitude."

"He likes me for my body."

"Something I really didn't need to know. Thank you."

The guards led them to the second level of the castle, then down the hallway, passing three doors along their path. The chill in the hallway made her think that the room would be just as cold. She could understand the appeal of sleeping with another warm body, so her thoughts went right to Obito. Beside her, Sasuke seemed uninterested in their surroundings, but she knew that he was taking in the rooms they passed, listening in as if he would find other guests in the unwelcoming place. She wanted changing leaves and hot cocoa, but she had a blizzard and a brooding teenager. When the guards came to a stop, one slid open the plain shoji door, revealing an actual bed, a small sitting area, and a couple of electric heaters. They had a breathtaking view of the mountains surrounding the castle, something that had Sasuke walking toward the windows. While he watched the wind whip the snowflakes around, she requested a spare futon and extra blankets. The guards bowed and left, and she had a feeling they would send a housekeeper to the room to deliver the items.

"They have aircrafts and chakra armor?" Sasuke turned his back to the window and leaned against the windowsill. She went to turn the heaters on, while he tried to imagine how the aircrafts would look. She'd seen two during the Third Shinobi War, but she'd heard horror stories about the shinobi. They manipulated existing ice. "Is that why Madara chose this place?"

"I wanted more nations with puppet governments, but there was always something pressing that prevented us from doing it. It started out with Doto refusing to pay us for assassinating his brother and his niece," Kana explained, taking a seat at the low table. He joined her at the table, a sign that he was interested in conversation.

"How close are you?"

"That's irrelevant. What you should gather from the story is that we've always been ambitious. You're a part of this because he thinks you're useful, even though you failed to capture the eight tails. The curse of hatred is strong in you."

"That's just a myth told to further our clan's oppression."

"Of course. You're absolutely right." Her tone was rich with sarcasm, which made him frown. In the end, he didn't need to believe in the curse. "You can see what our clan could have accomplished within Konoha, given the opportunity. Now we'll conquer the world," she shrugged, content with the outcome. He hummed and removed his sheathed sword from his back, so she followed his lead and placed her blade aside.

"He didn't mention your part in our clan's downfall," Sasuke shared, clearly pumping her for information. Her role made no difference. The subject brought up terrible images, so she looked down at the table, admiring the finish on the wood. "You did take part, didn't you?"

"What difference does it make? They're fucking dead, aren't they? I didn't have anything to do with killing anyone other than my own family members. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made. I'm not proud of what I did that night, but nothing changes the past. You can't undo what happened, Sasuke. Revenge won't bring your family back to you. It feels good, and that's it. Nothing more."

"I can't help feeling like I could have done something. I feel like I could have done more, had I known the reason for what happened that night. My brother sacrificed everything for me, and I helped kill him."

"That's something you'll have to live with. He didn't hate you; he never hated you. He loved you. Everything he did, he did because he loved you. He had a pure heart, and that's rare in the shinobi world. People die for it."

When two housekeepers arrived with a futon, clean bedding, and extra blankets, Sasuke let the women into the room and watched them set up his bed. The women didn't speak to them, but Kana had expected their silence. After they finished setting up the spare futon, they left, and Sasuke went to sit on his bed. He laid his sword beside his futon, keeping it within reach, while she secured the room. By the time she was finished, he sat crisscross on the bed, with one of the spare blankets draped over his shoulders. She sat down on the bed and stretched her legs out, but she made no move to get beneath the covers. She wondered if either of them would get any sleep. She recalled all of the arguments she'd had with Obito, and each memory made her wish that they'd had more time together, even if it meant more arguments. And Sasuke was likely thinking of his own bittersweet memories.

"Were you together?" She didn't understand the question, so he stopped staring at the far wall to judge her blank expression. "You didn't want him to die. I saw your face. I thought maybe there was something between you. Did he have someone there for him?" She sighed and angled her body towards him, using two of the pillows to support her back. In the end, Itachi was alone. But he'd had Kisame as company for years. Maybe he'd still felt alone.

"No, we weren't together, and it's possible that he was still lonely, even with his partner. He suffered for years, fighting off the side effects of his illness. He was almost blind. His stamina was poor, so he relied on the sharingan too much. If you're asking if he had any romantic relationships, he might have, but none that I knew about. Kisame liked and genuinely respected your brother, so maybe that made the years bearable," she shrugged, acknowledging her own lack of information. Sasuke nodded, though she could tell he felt even worse about his brother's demise. "He died with you by his side. He chose to be with you."

"I guess he did," Sasuke admitted, his words quiet. "I'm glad that I was there. I'm glad that I know the truth. I'm glad that I have the strength to seek vengeance." She took one of her spare pillows and smacked him in the side of his head. The hit knocked him over, so he looked up at her in shock. She returned the pillow to its place and he glared at her.

"Lighten up and go to sleep, Sasuke. Chasing ghosts won't do you any good."

"What will you dream about? What is your ideal world?"

"Does it really matter what lives we lead while trapped in the genjutsu? The person I care about is still alive, just like the remaining person you care about."

"He still wants me. He's an idiot."

"You're an idiot too," she replied, finally getting under the covers. He gave her a dirty look, but he didn't try arguing with her. "Go to sleep, Sasuke." She turned out the bedside light on him, so he moved in the dark to reposition the heaters in the room. She instantly felt warmer, but she still tugged the blankets up to her neck.

He didn't try talking to her again.

Chapter Text

They had navigated the rough, untouched terrain of the Land of Bears only to discover a ghost town. Kana didn’t need someone to explain the fate of the villagers when she already knew the horrific toll of star training. Together, they explored the dusty ruins of the once proud village, finding bones in every building. At first, she thought that star training had killed every one of them, but some of the bones told different stories. Some skeletons were found in several pieces, others with broken necks, where someone had killed the ones not destined for the wasting illness brought on by harnessing the power of the fallen star. She thought of Yuka and she felt something about the girl’s demise. Yuka had survived a harrowing experience only to die in a place that should have been safe, only to die in her home. There was no way to tell the skeletons apart, so she couldn’t even give the girl a proper burial. She thought that Sasuke would look on with indifference, but the boy was utterly silent. They both knew they walked amongst the open graves of men, women, and children.

If prayers served a true purpose, she would have offered them without hesitation. But she’d abandoned the thought of gods a long time ago. With nothing but bones, the village had nothing to offer them, so there was no point in remaining in Hoshigakure. Obito needed an army, and the skeletons wouldn’t rise and aid them. Sasuke tried to show some level of compassion by quietly asking her if she wanted to bury the remains, but there was no point. Only Yuka had truly weaseled into her life. She told him to shut the hell up, and he grunted at her, and that was their way of shaking off the ghosts and marking the end of their mission. The shinobi they’d collected would serve them well because failure wasn’t an option.

The impending war followed them as they retraced their steps through the Land of Bears. Even though they hoped to achieve different things, they were allies. Maybe they should have talked about their feelings or the future that their win would bring them, but they didn’t. Kana focused on the knowledge that they would separate, that she would be on her own. She waited for fear or doubt, for the sweeping feeling of isolation, but none of those feelings emerged. She told herself she’d been through worse, she’d fought her way out of worse, and what was another war to her when war represented the same damn thing. Death. Destruction. Infinite tsukuyomi. Winning was the same as losing. She knew Sasuke didn’t fully understand the goal of the Fourth Shinobi War. Their partnership would dissolve when it came to the point of the infinite tsukuyomi. Eventually, they would fight to the death. But until then, they helped one another cross the Devil’s Ravine, on their way to the Mountain’s Graveyard.

“Is there something between you and Kakashi?”

“Nope.”

“You answered that fast.”

“Because there’s nothing between us. He’s no one. Drop it.”

She refused to look at him, but he still saw the scowl on her face. At times, he was a little prick, and it made her regret not kicking him into the Devil’s Ravine when she had the chance. She knew he meant to pick her apart because he’d subtly tried to lure her into revealing conversations over the course of their journey. He meant to judge her, to see if she had what it took to be a valuable part of the equation. It wouldn’t have surprised her if he’d considered kicking her into the ravine too. She thought that her clipped response would deter him, but she heard him hum, and she knew he wasn’t done trying to pry information from her. He’d accepted that she was tight-lipped when it came to discussing anything to do with her past with Obito. He didn’t suspect that they had a deeper relationship, so he’d given up. To him, they were simply two people moving in the same direction. She knew it was only a matter of time before he tried to learn what it was she hoped to achieve with Tsuki no Me. But there was no grand secret.

“What are you getting out of this?” She closed her eyes for a brief moment and exhaled sharply through her nose. Sometimes people were so predictable. Instead of lying, she chose to ignore him. He’d already gathered that she didn’t care about world peace, so that left her reason open to interpretation. He craved power and control—he craved real justice wrapped in nothing but the proverbial barbed wire of vengeance. He stewed in silence for several hours before broaching the subject again. “Do you care about anyone but yourself, Kana?”

Kana snorted at the question, unable to help herself. If she truly only cared about herself, she would have fucked off a long time ago. She would have retired to a tropical island and lived out the rest of her days in peace. Maybe that was a bit extreme. She made a small noise to dismiss her own thoughts. “You know that’s a ridiculous question coming from you,” Kana finally replied, sparing a glance in his direction. He frowned at her, so she shrugged her shoulders. She didn’t care if she’d offended him. “I know you doubt me. It couldn’t be more obvious. I’m very good at killing people, and I enjoy it quite a lot. War is what I know. You’re a baby. You didn’t experience the last one.”

“Chaotic evil,” Sasuke thought aloud, clearly recalling basic alignments they’d learned in the academy. They’d all completed simple personality tests, something to fill up time when they’d had no other lessons to complete. She thought of herself as more of a chaotic neutral kind of person, but she understood the appeal of being chaotic evil. “That’s it, isn’t it?”

“Tell me you had too much free time in the academy without telling me you had too much free time in the academy,” Kana replied, silently disagreeing with him. She thought she heard him sigh, but she chose to ignore it. “I’ve been called morally grey, and I think that suits me just fine. For instance, right now, I want to take the hilt of my sword and smash it against your skull, but I won’t do that. I understand that you’re trying to decide how we’ll work together during the war, and I can respect that, to some extent.” He made a small noise to acknowledge her words, then they lapsed into silence again. “I’ve told you I care about one person, and that wasn’t a lie. I’m not getting anything out of this. I’m here to play a role and that’s all. I’m fine with that.”

She knew how to lie, both to herself and to other people. In the end, she obtained nothing from the successful completion of Tsuki no Me. She would rot, as others would rot, lost in a fake world meant to give her everything her heart desired. And while some might have considered that worth the cost, worth the sacrifice, she didn’t. Tsuki no Me would make Obito happy, or so he thought. She had the nagging feeling that he would achieve his goal and realize too late that he would spend the rest of his life alone, basking in his own misery. Nothing she said would ever change his mind. They’d had years together, and maybe that should have been enough for her selfish heart, but it wasn’t. She hated that Sasuke roused those thoughts and feelings, so she shot him a dirty look that he purposely ignored. The war and all of its intricate parts would fill every empty space left inside of her. If she focused on the war, she could forget, she could deny, she could lie to herself.

“It’s not Kakashi at all, is it, Kana?”

The urge to mortally wound him resurfaced, but she shoved it down as if she were swallowing a bitter pill. The silence filled in the space where her response should have been, answering the question when she refused. When they saw the large skeletons marking the Mountain’s Graveyard, she chose to place her hand on his left forearm. They stopped short of crossing onto the land, as if one step further would make their presence anymore obvious. Obito already knew they were there. They could never really hide from him.

“You’re going to abandon us. You’re useful now, but not for the entirety. It’s no secret. Don’t feign surprise or act offended. I’m stating a fact.”

“Then why are you pointing out the obvious?”

“I want Tsuki no Me to fail, and I know you can help make that a reality.”

“You’re betraying him.”

Her expression was grave, their voices mere whispers in the night. They were conspiring souls then, though they would never desire the same thing. She meant to betray the man she loved. And maybe she’d always meant to betray him, to force his hand when he refused to yield. She was selfish, but she’d always been selfish, far too selfish. She could act like the perfect soldier, she could follow the song and dance of a true warrior, but at heart, she was a selfish, disgusting thing. He would hate her, and he would curse her, but she would never give up on him. She would be there, ready for him to love her again, ready for him to forgive her traitorous ways. She was a selfish, disgusting thing, and it was wrong of her, so wrong of her, but that didn’t deter her. The world she desired only required the failure of a plan decades in the making.

She wasn’t born to be soft and quiet—she was born to make the world shatter and shake at her fingertips.

In the end, what was a little betrayal between lovers.

Chapter Text

“Just don’t fuck up and die.”

“Hn.”

There was no grand goodbye, no better parting words, just her watching Sasuke walk away, knowing that their futures were intertwined. She knew how to use people, like Sasuke knew how to use people, like Obito knew how to use people, but she liked to think she was much better than the both of them. They all had wickedness inside of them, the curse of hatred like lifeblood winding through their veins. Beneath that, she had a twisting in her gut, the knowledge of her deceit and her impending betrayal leaving her sick to her stomach. And through it all, she frowned, the only outward sign of her mounting anxiety. Obito couldn’t read her thoughts, couldn’t filter through the constant static hovering between broken bits of future plans. She would have to fight him, and she knew that he would be furious, furious enough to hurt her in unimaginable ways, furious enough to kill her. But she couldn’t die, not before Tsuki no Me unraveled. Somehow, she had to reach him, even if it meant utilizing kinjutsu.

Without Sasuke carefully watching their exchanges, Kana finally turned to face Obito. It was time—they all had their parts to play. There were so many things she could have said to him, so many things she longed to say to him, but she offered him a partial smile that didn’t reach her eyes. She wanted to see him, but he didn’t reach for the mask hiding his face from view. The troops had mobilized. The battlegrounds had been drawn. And she still stood there, feeling that wickedness, that tainted lifeblood, slowly consuming her. He trusted her. Maybe all she knew how to do was hurt someone. Maybe she majored in betrayal, such a delicate subject that balanced beautifully on a razor’s edge. He trusted her. But she didn’t deserve it.

“So this is it,” she began, a shaky laugh following the words. He stood in front of her and ran his right hand over her hair, a silent show of affection, the first in over a week. She tipped her head back to meet his gaze, and she knew that he would go down fighting. Unlike her, he was practically buzzing with excitement, ready to fight and conquer. Her confidence was different, colder, darker. “Should I tell you not to fuck up and die, or is that already implied?” She heard him chuckle and it was like a serrated blade twisting in her gut. Yes, he trusted her.

She slipped the fingers on her right hand just beneath the edge of his mask, but he caught her wrist. There was a moment where she thought he would push her away, but he stopped her only to remove it himself. There was another mask he intended to wear, one more intimidating than the one used to identify Madara, and she hated it. He became another person, Madara without being Madara, someone with no name, someone with no need for a name. He became a void, reminiscent of his world in kamui. When he let the mask fall to the ground, she placed her hands on his cheeks and memorized everything about him. She used her sharingan to capture the moment in a visual sense, then she used touch to savor the feel of his skin against her palms, then she breathed in his scent. She didn’t think he would die, not someone like him, someone utterly untouchable, but war was riddled with unknowns.

He rested his hands on her upper arms, lightly stroking them. She’d traded out her romper for a bodysuit, head to toe in black. He’d told her she looked nice, a casual comment that came with a tone of sarcasm. She knew he was being genuine, but Sasuke being present had ruined the moment. His right moved from her upper arm and he gripped the tiny zipper on the front of her clothing, lightly toying with it between his index and middle fingers. She leaned up to kiss him and he met her partway. Their lips aligned perfectly, and their soft exchange changed when she parted her lips for his tongue. Eyes once half-lidded were fully closed. She brushed her left thumb over his scarred cheek as he teased her with his tongue. His hands went to her hips, but she took his right hand and placed it on her ass. He hummed into the kiss and she gasped when he squeezed her ass. Then the kiss was broken, the moment shattered.

“Tempting, but we have a war to fight,” he gently chided her. He punctuated his words by giving her ass a quick slap, then he stepped away and went to retrieve his new mask. There was his excitement again. He’d hated the Third Shinobi War, but he fully embraced the Fourth. And war was war. They were all the same, in the end. “Do you want to wear my Tobi mask?”

“You kept it?”

“You loved it.”

“I really didn’t. I love you.”

She didn’t think he would say it back, but he paused and turned back for her. He dragged her into his arms and pressed his lips firmly against hers. He nipped her bottom lip with his teeth so she reached around to pinch his ass. The kiss was ruined when he pulled back to laugh, but it wasn’t about the kiss. It was never really about the kisses. It was about how good he made her feel. His laughter was sweet to her ears, and it brought a genuine smile to her face. She was sure their happy moment would be the last one for a long time. He handed her his new mask and she placed it on him, then she wrapped her arms around him and held him tightly. He would learn to hate her, despise her, destroy her, but for those last few moments, he loved her.

She felt his eyes on her as she walked away, and the knife twisted a little more in her gut. She was sure that there was nothing left of her insides. War deadened what the blade couldn’t. Kabuto had become a valuable ally, something she begrudgingly admitted when she finally met with the seven Swordsmen of the Mist. They were waiting for her, as if she actually belonged with them; inside, she hated working with the Kiri nin, walking corpses or not. They were mindless zombies to her, though they could speak freely. The only one she bothered to acknowledge was Zabuza, and that was only because he complained about being brought back from the dead and used like some low-grade tool. He was different than she’d expected, unlike the man she remembered encountering during his time alive. He’d been a bitter, heartless bastard, constantly taunting her about carving out her kidneys. The boy among the group remained at Zabuza’s side, an unknown at first, and entirely out of place.

Their first real contact with enemy forces came when they encountered what she considered the surprise attack division, a small group meant for quick, ambush-style attacks and ease of mobility. The first one in her group to notice them, other than herself, was the boy, Haku. They all looked up at the birds flying overhead, then they were attacked with a barrage of explosive tags. Kana did not like explosions, so she was not pleased. Haku initially shielded the group from the explosive tags, proving that they didn’t know how the reanimation jutsu truly worked. They regenerated. Haku’s actions only benefited her. Her unit operated under commands, so she was free to hunt down the one responsible for initiating the attack. She did not like explosions, and she quickly discovered she did not like birds. The surprise attack division was littered with cowards, so she had to wait while Haku destroyed the birds to move in on its members.

“Well hello there,” Kana greeted them, watching them jump to their feet. Of the group, she recognized two Konoha shinobi, one being a Hyuga and another being a clanless man with a large mouth. The leader of the group was a puppet user. Everything she hated was rolled into one miserable unit. Around her, her unit attacked, and then the clanless coward let off a red flare requesting additional assistance. “I’m killing you for that,” she muttered to herself.

They didn’t have enough time left to fully slaughter the surprise attack division, not with assistance on the way. And she felt them, the way the shinobi shifted and began to move in their direction. Even though she’d planned on killing the one who’d signaled, Zaji, she found herself battling the puppet user from Sunagakure, the true leader of the division. A lot of what she knew came from experience during the war and what she knew about Sasori’s fighting style. He was gifted for being so young. She’d hoped to conserve chakra, so she fought with her wakizashi, making strategic strikes at perceived weak points. The goal was to cripple as many of their opponents as possible. She lost her interest the moment she picked out his chakra, her scowl quickly easing into a devilish grin. They’d signaled another division, yes, but it was Kakashi’s division, and that delighted her, because it felt like a sweet reunion. Before they arrived, she successfully killed Zaji, his blood coating the grass and her blade in scarlet. Her unit was outnumbered, and war was nothing without strategy, so the obvious choice was a hasty retreat.

“Kakashi.”

“Shut up, zombie. This is my conversation.”

“Vapid bitch.”

Kana glared at Zabuza, but he shut his mouth. It was as if her sweet reunion was interrupted by a reunion between old bar buddies. Zabuza began asking about Kakashi, so she stabbed him in the throat a few times, swung her blade to get the bits of him still clinging to it off of her weapon, and turned her attention to Kakashi. There was a lull, a moment where she simply stood before Kakashi and stared into his sharingan eye, Obito’s sharingan eye. His fingers twitched, a telltale sign that he wanted to act, but she kept her posture relaxed. As they stood there, she used her peripheral to assess the division at his disposal. She recognized quite a few shinobi among them. Hiding in the mist was their best option, because she had a nagging suspicion that they weren’t going to retreat without a fight, and she was perfectly fine with fighting. Gai was a taijutsu user, and while she was incredibly efficient, she was no master, so he was not a viable target. She gave up on her fifth attempt at finding a more suitable opponent, because she knew she didn’t really give a damn. She wanted Kakashi.

“You look good,” she complimented him, done with her quick assessment. He was more obvious in the way he studied her unit. In the end, they had one another. Like her, he was unwilling to part with their promise of a quick rematch. They had so much to catch up on. “Tell me you missed me,” she huffed, teasing him to throw him off guard.

“You’re outnumbered,” he shared, as if she didn’t know. She pretended to count the members of her unit, then she shrugged. She waited for him to tell her to surrender, to tell her that it didn’t have to be that way, but he didn’t. He looked at her as if they had no history at all, and maybe it was better that way.

Once the mist came into play, she gave up on her game with Kakashi and let the enemies panic. The division relied too much on weapons that did nothing to stop the reanimated shinobi. With five of the summoned blades of the Seven Swordsmen, systematically killing the members of the third division was easy. Kana followed in the shadows of them, picking others off that tried to help dying team members. The silent killing technique was art embodied. She hadn’t felt such a rush in a long time. Bodies piled up around them, becoming hazards for the enemy. But every good thing came to an end. The Yamanaka among Kakashi’s division became a problem, followed by the Nara. They worked well together, so she made it her mission to kill the Yamanaka first. She sheathed her blade and followed the man’s chakra signature as if he were a beacon in the night, then she emerged from the mist, her sharingan active. Killing him was simple, just a slash of his throat with a kunai and a small gurgle to signify the end.

The chirping signified the life of Kakashi’s raikiri, which meant she was too late to avoid the inevitable end to the mist. He hit Haku first, then Zabuza went through Haku to reach Kakashi, and there was an exchange where the two acknowledged that it wasn’t what Zabuza wanted. She struck Kakashi in the back with her wakizashi, but the raikiri had already struck its mark. He turned on her, so she kicked him in the side, but he twisted and grabbed her elbow, dragging her along with him for a couple of steps. She needed to retreat, but he hit her so hard in her gut that she choked on her own breath. He went to hit her again, but she looked up at him and he quickly closed his eyes to avoid her sharingan. As a parting gift, she poked his ticklish side and left him there, stunned.

It wasn’t a complete loss, but it felt that way. The first day was nothing but chaotic battles across wide expanses, where the two sides never truly parted. By nightfall, all she heard was explosions taking place from various sides. She covered her ears and glared into the distance. It was all she could do. And lightning kept kissing her senses, over and over, the man pursuing her whenever he had a moment. His division was relentless, as if they operated solely for vengeance. When they finally met again, it was early the next morning, and all she could think about was the look on his face when she chose not to hurt him. She knew about war, about killing people, about all facets of human suffering. But that war would end. She was destined to fight alongside him, and she knew that, but he didn’t.

Traitors loved trickery.

Chapter Text

They met and parted over the course of the following day and night, like with so many others, and each introduction left her feeling as if her insides were slowly spilling out. It was the twist of that serrated blade, the impending betrayal. She fought for Obito without truly fighting for Obito. She fought for what she wanted, what she thought he truly wanted. Her plans for the end were haphazard at best. The main battlefield was a mess, not at all what she imagined. Her part of the mission was complete. There was no further use for Akatsuki, like there was no further use for the Swordsmen of the Mist. They were gone. Those moves were over. The pieces had been forfeited. The one person she never expected to see was her reanimated ancestor, and she set all decent thoughts of Kabuto aflame. Reanimating Madara was the single worst thing that monster could have done, because Madara had kickstarted Tsuki no Me with Obito. She couldn’t reach Obito with Madara around. Nothing she said had any hope of changing him. And if Obito failed, Madara would pick up where the man had left off and run things right into the ground.

She betrayed Obito in the safe space of kamui, making it almost poetic in nature. He and Kakashi had unknowingly dragged her along for their fight, and she watched them fight as if they were simply children sparring. In another life, they could have remained friends. Maybe Obito wouldn’t have hurt Kakashi so much. Maybe Kakashi wouldn’t have abandoned them. She clenched her eyes shut at the sound of raikiri, because she knew that Kakashi truly thought it was the end for Obito, and she knew it wasn’t how their story would end. Obito lashed out at Kakashi and she was there, grabbing his wrist, stopping the worst of the thrust meant to skewer Kakashi. He looked at her as if she’d been the one to thrust her hand through his chest, to carve a hole right through where his heart should have been. He backhanded her so hard that he dislocated her jaw. She thought that he would try appealing to Kakashi again, that he would attempt to draw them into the convoluted plan that built the ideal world for everyone involved, but he didn’t. He didn’t even look at her before he left them there.

Her whole right side ached from where the force of his hit sent her right to the concrete, and the pain she felt in her jaw was indescribable. She couldn’t close her mouth, and barely touching the area brought tears to her eyes. But she hadn’t expected a better reaction. She’d betrayed him, and he’d punished her for it, and she deserved it for ever turning her back on him. She fully collapsed on the concrete and cried through the worst of her pain, but nothing eased the utter agony gripping her. In the end, it was about much more than her physical pain. Further away, Kakashi was on his knees, one hand pressed to his right side. He’d been stabbed, despite her quick interference, so he kept pressure on his wound. Kakashi hadn’t reached Obito, but it wasn’t surprising. Obito had always been stubborn, even as a child. If they couldn’t reach him, the only outcome included the successful completion of Tsuki no Me or Obito’s death, and she hated both outcomes.

Her sobs were terrible to witness because they shook her whole body. She was embarrassed of her behavior, constantly trying to stop herself, to just control her own damn body, but she couldn’t. She heard movement, the sound of fabric brushing against the concrete, and she tried to hide herself, to make herself smaller, but it didn’t work. Kakashi dropped to his knees beside her and placed his hand on her back, where he felt each sob shake her. Neither of them knew what to say, not that she could speak with her dislocated jaw. She wanted him to stop touching her, but she found herself gripping the fabric of his pants, right above his right knee. He gently stroked her back as she cried, until there was nothing left, until her eyes ached and burned, unable to produce more tears. He was bleeding all over himself, and she had blood running from the right side of her mouth, where her teeth had hit her tongue and her cheek.

He pulled her into a seated position and frowned at the state of her face, his fingers hovering over her jaw without making contact with her skin. Her face was already swollen, and she knew her left eye would be black and blue, most likely bloodshot. She couldn’t bear to look into his eyes, so she kept her eyes downcast. She was a traitor again. All she knew how to do was betray the people she loved.

“Kana,” he began, his voice as soft as his touch had been. She flinched when he touched her shoulder, still stuck in the mindset that touch paired with pain. “Why did you do that?” Her eyes flicked up to meet his, but she averted her eyes just as fast. She couldn’t speak, so she didn’t try. He sighed at her, but he placed his thumbs on her face and carefully manipulated her jaw back into place. She groaned and hissed throughout the whole process, even after her lower jaw was back in place. “There,” he said, as if he’d done something simple for her.

“I want to be happy.” He wiped the blood from her mouth, then he shifted his attention to himself. He lifted his shirt and tucked the edge under his chin to examine his wound. It wasn’t deep enough to be an emergency, but it was close to his liver and it refused to stop bleeding. “You’ll need sutures. It’s too deep.” She kept to simple sentences to avoid putting strain on her jaw.

He had basic essentials on him, nothing strictly designated for first aid, but she stopped him when he was about to cast aside a small sewing kit, one smaller than the palm of his hand. It was standard, something most shinobi received at promotion and never used. There were shinobi who retired without ever using the simple sewing kit. It was a running joke that no one would ever stop to sew the holes in their clothes. But that tiny sewing kit would work. She took the kit from his hand and slid the tiny cardboard cover off, then she retrieved one of the two needles tucked inside the plastic tray. Her hands shook, so it took all of her focus to bend the needle into an arc suitable for suturing. Without a numbing agent, it would hurt, but they both knew that. She used an interrupted stitch, tying each stitch with a surgeon’s knot, just like she was taught. She brought the sides of the wound together without squishing his skin or causing it to tent. In the end, she applied four sutures in less than ten minutes, then she dropped the used needle on the concrete.

“We should go,” he mumbled, sounding exhausted. She forced herself to her feet and helped him stand, even though each breath made her right side burn. She had likely fractured her ribs, but she brushed off the observation. Knowing made no difference. He let his shirt fall back into place, then he took her hand. “Thank you.” The words came with an exhale, light, barely audible, but she heard them. The injury was close to his liver, but even driving the sharpened object all the way through wouldn’t have hit it. Obito hadn’t been trying to kill him.

“Please shut up.”

Chapter Text

Obito became the jinchuriki of the ten-tails and everything about him changed, from his personality to his appearance; right before her eyes, he became both a god and a monster. From the safety of her susanoo, she and Kakashi watched the entire horrific scene transcend all reality. She began to doubt that she would ever prevent his demise. Naruto and Sasuke had differing ideas, where Naruto wanted to save him and Sasuke wanted to kill him. She didn't want to stop her assault, but she had other pressing issues, mainly related to Madara, as the man had summoned his own susanoo and turned it on the allied shinobi. He needed to be sealed before he claimed more lives, and the assembled kage could only do so much. Beside her, Kakashi was bleeding from his sharingan eye, chest rapidly rising and falling, where they'd fought their way through shinobi from the villages she'd collected. His reserves had grown but he wasn't invincible.

"I understand if you need to sit this one out. You're in bad shape," she explained, meeting his gray eye. He frowned at her and straightened up, as if his full height would change her opinion of him. She didn't want him to die from chakra exhaustion, but she knew he would accept it without qualms. He had a good heart. "You realize you could die from chakra exhaustion. That would be it for you. I don't want that for you."

"You've given me some of the best moments of my life. I'm aware that this could kill me, but it could just as easily kill you," he reminded her, as if she needed such a heavy reminder. She could die with Obito hating her, and that was unacceptable, but it was still true. "Let's fight together one last time, hm?"

"Alright. Let's do this.”

Her pink susanoo extended its wings and took flight, carrying them to Madara’s own complete body susanoo. Unlike her own susanoo, Madara’s blue susanoo had four arms, two of which held blades, in addition to its right arm wielding a blade. It looked demonic in nature, while hers seemed better suited for an angel. The flames of her susanoo’s wings extended and danced in the dark night, individual flames splitting off to leave dissolving flames in its wake. She kept her right hand on Kakashi’s shoulder, as if she would lose him if she let go. She was just reckless enough to think they had a chance. With Madara being reanimated via the impure world jutsu, she couldn’t use her mangekyou to wound him. He would recover and she would have wasted chakra. He liked to dance, and she felt like a pretty good dancer.

Her eyes bled as they fought, her chakra construct protecting them from every harsh blow. The sword on Madara’s passed through one of her flame-like fans, but the fan immediately reformed once the blade was removed. She sent pink fireballs formed from her fans and his susanoo was forced back a few steps, but nothing penetrated the susanoo. He was older, more experienced, and she knew his susanoo, though complete like her own, was more powerful. She longed for Itachi to fight beside her, but the man was busy on a mission of his own. Her susanoo held against Madara’s blows, but tiny fractures began to form. Kakashi touched her sore side and she hissed in pain, her susanoo taking a sword that broke through its armor. Tiny fractures became larger, until her susanoo began to deconstruct, reduced to a skeleton form before it finally dispersed. Before the susanoo fully dispersed, it let her down, with Kakashi supporting her the entire time.

“Are you alright?”

She gritted her teeth, her left hand pressed against the right side of her ribcage. It was a stupid question, even though he was genuinely concerned. They were allies. Anything else complicated matters, and they couldn’t afford the complication. She gave a sharp nod and he slowly released his hold on her, allowing her to fully support herself. Above them, Madara’s susanoo began to deconstruct, leaving the man to drop to the ground. Madara had been obsessed with fighting Hashirama, but he’d moved on to the kage, and then to her susanoo. She wasn’t at her best, but she wasn’t going to die to some zombie. They needed to successfully seal the man away. And that was when Sasuke rejoined the fight, joining them on the ground. One of his eyes had blood trailing down from it, and he was slightly winded, but he was in better shape. Together, they could fight their own former clan member, Uchiha versus Uchiha.

“Go get someone to seal him. We’re taking this old fuck down,” Kana said, her voice low. Kakashi looked at her for a long moment, his gaze communicating everything he wanted to say. She was taking a large risk, but that was the way war worked. It was a calculated risk. Kakashi never made it to the sealing team though. The man was redirected to Obito, leaving Kana and Sasuke alone. She had no idea Kakashi wasn’t coming back. “I have plenty of chakra to spare, but I have fractured ribs. How are you doing?”

“I have chakra. If we can delay him at any moment, I can use amaterasu. He’s fast. It’s not impossible to dodge.”

“It burns slowly.”

“It does, but it wholly consumes. I can use it more than once, and I can control it.”

“I’ll distract him. Don’t burn me,” she decided, taking a deep breath that caused her to wince. He rested a hand on her forearm, so she paused after her first step. “You want to fight him together?” He never took his eyes off Madara, but he still nodded in response. They’d never worked in full combat with one another, so there was a chance they wouldn’t work well together, even in a pinch. She motioned for him to go first, then they drew their blades.

Neither of them had anticipated the fact that while they took part in Madara’s dance, he was far superior. The man used two kunai and deflected blows, sometimes at the same time. He tried disarming them more than once, and his kunai eventually nicked her wakizashi. She had to step back to examine her blade and cussed under her breath. When her blade finally broke, she slammed the broken end right through Madara’s chest and swiped it upwards, cutting the man from navel to clavicle. Part of Madara’s armor fell, so the man fully removed it and grinned at her, the type of grin that caught her off guard. He’d been playing with them. She thought he would focus entirely on her, and he proved her correct. He was a merciless fighter, constantly on the offense, and she was forced to fight with kunai. One glance over Madara’s shoulder told her that Sasuke was prepared. But the deadly black flames did nothing when Madara removed his shirt and dropped it on the ground.

He made the comment that Sasuke looked a lot like Izuna, and Kana recognized that name. Sasuke’s appearance didn’t deter Madara. Sasuke took a kunai to the back that went right through him, but she kicked Madara so hard that the man’s knee caved in. She forced him to abandon the kunai. Sasuke tried to remove it, but she slapped his hand away. Around them the demonic statue had been tearing through the battlefield, but chakra chains blossomed and shredded it, the mark of an Uzumaki among them. Sasuke was bleeding to death, and she didn’t know what to do. So she used her eternal mangekyou. She cut off the optic nerve in Madara’s right eye, disabling the powerful rinnegan, making the eye entirely useless, and it didn’t regenerate. She swore she heard him chuckle. And even though she should have abandoned Sasuke for dead, she didn’t.

“Can you use it again?”

“Only once. I panicked.”

“Shit,” Sasuke hissed, dropping to one knee. He curled in on himself, trying in vain to stop the bleeding, while she watched Madara turn towards Obito. Tsuki no Me was Madara’s plan all along, and the man was long overdue to take control. “Just go,” Sasuke ground out, raising his head to meet her eyes. “I’ll be fine,” he lied, as if she would actually believe him. He looked so much like his mother, and he was too young to die, but she closed her eyes and accepted the fact that her mission no longer included him. Kakashi wasn’t returning. She had to move on.

She thought that the Fourth War would be eerily reminiscent of the chaos of the Third War, but she was wrong. The war escalated and she felt as if the world were slowly folding in around her. So when she saw Obito on the ground, barely alive, she felt as if she were aimlessly drifting through the seconds it took her to run to him, to tackle Kakashi and prevent the man from finishing the job. She’d never seen Obito look so defeated, so empty, so very resigned. But he looked at her, for the first time since the moment she’d betrayed him. She should have said something, done something, but she gripped his hand and cried silent tears. People watched them, making no move to aid the fallen man. He no longer wanted the world to transition into the infinite tsukuyomi. She had a happy ending in her future. But he was dying. That happy future was false, her own illusion. She should have done more, been better. She croaked that they needed a medic. She asked them why they were just standing there. No one answered her. She kneeled at his side and held his hand and cried her silent tears, shaky apologies between every labored breath.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I love you. Don’t leave me. Don’t just leave me,” she pleaded, bargaining with gods she swore she didn’t believe in, bargaining with the reaper itself. He was dying, and she wished that she could save him, but she couldn’t. He was dying and she wished that it was her instead. He didn’t have the energy to squeeze her hand, but she didn’t care; she squeezed his hand for his comfort as well as her own.

“You still look nice,” he shared, his voice a whisper. She let out a choked sob and clenched her eyes shut, refusing to see the blank expression on his face. He was so exhausted, so defeated, that he couldn’t even find the strength to smile. “I should have given up. I should have listened to you. I’m sorry.” She didn’t care about his apology because it didn’t fix her broken heart. She didn’t care about being right when being right had him welcoming his impending death. “Take the eye. Take the eye, Kana. He’ll come for it. Just destroy it.”

Her hand reached for it but Black Zetsu wound its way around her arm, halting her movement. And it was the beginning of another whirlwind. She watched Black Zetsu use the man she loved as if he were a mere puppet. She thought that she would know only sadness, but her own anger rose, her killing intent spiking. And she didn’t care if she had to go blind to kill Madara, but she would end him. He regained life, and she swore she would carve every organ from his body and set fire to them with katon jutsu and dance on the ashes of them. But they retreated like cowards, hid in kamui together, with Sakura along for the ride, feeding new life into Obito as they silently worked through their plans. She never expected Madara to show up, but she knew what that meant and it was devastating. She swore she didn’t care about Kakashi, but she did. She would never stop caring about Kakashi. Madara stabbed her through her gut, twisting the kunai until he drove it so deep that she swore he’d reached her very soul. And he left them there, left her there to bleed out. Only the rinnegan mattered. Sakura saved her, and she didn’t deserve it, like Obito hadn’t deserved it.

“I fucking told you so!”

“Just because I’m no longer dying doesn’t mean you can rub it in my face.”

“We’re going to gut him, and then I’m going to beat the shit out of you.”

“Yeah. I love you too.”

Chapter Text

“You’ve been avoiding me because of what happened in Lightning. You’re seeing something that isn’t there. I’m not asking you to fall in love with me, Obito. Don’t be deluded.”

He saw right through her. But she knew he was right, that what he’d said to her was true. Obito had nothing to give to her when every part of himself went into Tsuki no Me. She had so much of herself to give, every mismatched piece of herself, and he didn’t want her. There was no grand display of affection, no whispers of love and adoration, just the sound of the river and the flickering fireflies. She knew that it only took him seconds to expose the lie, to pick her apart and put her back together again. She’d fallen for him. She’d fallen in love with the guy who single-handedly destroyed her life. He didn’t call attention to her lie, and she was grateful for it, because she chose to deny her feelings until the day she died, until she ascended to the pure land or rotted in the depths of hell. Her life would have been different, if he’d never introduced himself. Maybe she would have gone on to marry Kakashi. Maybe they would have had a semi-decent life together. And maybe not. Obito had taken her future and set it on fire. She was the hillside burning in the night, flames dancing, outstretched to the sky. She pressed her palms into the grass and pushed herself to her feet. When it was obvious he wasn’t going to follow her, she continued alone.

The last time someone had touched her so tenderly, she'd loved the person. Maybe she loved any man willing to put up with her. Maybe she was just that desperate.

"You have feelings for me." She didn't know why she chose to say the words aloud, but it was too late to take them back. She turned her head to see him, expecting him to run away, to avoid her gaze, to do anything other than stare at her. She reached out to run her fingers through his hair. He didn't pull away from her. He didn't run away; he didn't avoid her. He let her touch him. "You told me you had nothing left to give me."

"I meant it. I can't be that person for you, Kana. I can't afford distractions. Tsuki no Me means everything to me." He stressed the name of his project, as if emphasis would drive her to feel the same way. She didn't care if the world blossomed or burned. Maybe that was why she didn't feel the same way. The lightning flowers on her arm reminded her of the first time she'd given her heart away.

"You just made love to me." She didn't understand how he could treat her so well and dismiss her moments later. He ran a hand over his face, and she knew that he'd been caught up too. He wanted her, just like she wanted him. But he chose to deny himself that pleasure in life, and he meant to deny her of it too. "I mean something to you, or you wouldn't be here right now. You want me." She didn't know why she had to tell him how he felt. She wondered if the old love he'd had for Rin shut down that part of himself. Maybe the curse of hatred had ruined him. "I want you, Obito. I want you when you're being a complete bastard to me. I want you when you're playing that insufferable Tobi role. I want you when you hold me at night. I want you when you're angry and sad and happy."

“I want you.”

“Again?”

“I’ll always want you, Obito.”

“That’s a very long time.”

His smile pulled on his scars, so she brushed a thumb over his lips. The number of smiles shared between them was limited by the time they had left. The ceremony that had meant little to her suddenly mattered a great deal. She wanted to wear white for him. She wanted to see him dressed in his formal clothing. She wanted many things she didn’t deserve, but she swore she deserved him, if nothing else. So they made love again in the afternoon sunshine, where she hoped every touch meant just as much to him as it did to her.

“This feels a lot like a goodbye,” she admitted, disliking the shift in tone. She thought he might bring up the war, just to completely sour the conversation. The topic was inevitable, as the war would require careful planning, but she wanted to pretend for a little while longer. She wanted to pretend that she had every part of him, even though he left her wanting. “You know,” she began, drawing his attention to her, “I would die for you. And I don’t expect you to say the same thing.” His surprised expression, eyes wide and lips slightly parted, made her look away. There was something more comforting about death than an eternal genjutsu.

“I won’t let that happen,” he reassured her, removing the hat from her head and pulling the pins from her hair. Her hair fell down her back and he rested his hand atop her hair as he kissed her. “That’s not how this is going to end for you or for us.” His words had a finality that made her wholly believe him, as if he could truly guarantee her survival. In the end, she would stand by her words, and she couldn’t see him keeping his unnamed promise to her. “I mean it,” he said, cementing the words.

She wanted to say that her body moved on its own, that it was a simple reflex, one any sane person would have made, but that was a filthy lie, and after everything she’d gone through, she didn’t want to lie to herself anymore. She’d once told Obito that she would die for him, and she still meant it, with every fiber of her being. Clear memories, small snapshots throughout her life replayed in her mind. She saw the home she’d made with Kakashi. She saw her own wedding, reliving the same butterflies she felt that day. She saw Obito’s smile, felt his arms around her, and heard whispered words of love. And she didn’t hate him for failing to save her, because she’d taken his choice away the moment she moved. He saved Kakashi, and she chose to save him. They never could get enough of each other. In the end, it was about the three of them. In the end, she never achieved her happy ending. She had blood and pain so sharp that she cried out, a scream that spoke of everything she felt at that moment and everything she would never feel again.

She didn’t give her life to save Naruto, and maybe that made her a bad person, but she didn’t care. Nothing mattered anymore. Obito caught her as she fell, and she saw the devastation written all over his face. He looked silly with white hair, but it also worked for him. She reached out to touch his face but they both saw the way her skin seemed to flake and fall away. He never took his eyes off of her, and he held her so tightly to himself that she began to wonder if he truly thought he could keep her there if he just refused to let go. He was supposed to rage and fight, supposed to embrace hatred and spit vengeance, but she saw tears gather in his eyes. He’d changed, and she would never know what their life would have been like with him. Naruto tried to save her, but there was no saving her. Her skin simply flaked and faded in the air, as if she were simply shedding her skin to be born anew. But there was nothing beyond that moment for her, not for someone who’d done the things that she’d done.

“Why?” He wasn’t angry. The hurt in his voice, the small, broken way that he asked, made her cry too. She wanted to hide behind bravado, poke fun at him for being a pussy, but she lay in his arms and looked into his sharingan eyes. “I told you I wouldn’t let you die. You shouldn’t have moved, Kana. You should have let me die!”

“Yeah, and I told you I would die for you. Like I’d let you show me up,” she huffed, rolling her eyes at him. He choked on a laugh and she felt the smile slowly blossoming on her face. He would move on without her. People moved on, even when they swore that they wouldn’t. He would find a Botan who would never know the real him. He would have kids that were spoiled brats. He would live. “Please look after Kakashi. He’s hopeless. You know he is. And know that I’m so glad you kidnapped me, because you made my miserable life worth living. Now get your shit together, and avenge me the only way an Uchiha knows how.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, I know.”

She chose to die saving the person she loved, and she didn’t regret it.

Chapter Text

Kakashi stood in front of her, his hands deep in the pockets of his black pants, silently waiting for her to change her mind, but she didn’t. She didn’t think she deserved happiness, or any show of kindness, for that matter, but she’d accepted the late-stage pardon, as if she really had a choice in the matter. Two years of misery just wasn’t enough for her, and the road promised her a lifetime. Maybe she should have offered her services to the village, in some attempt at rebuilding burnt bridges, but she didn’t. She blamed Konoha for all of the bad in her life, right down to the misery that had made its home in her bones. Obito had experienced a change of heart, and Sasuke had experienced a change of heart, but she still had ugliness inside of her, something two years of incarceration couldn’t cure.

Kakashi had forgiven her, like an idiot, because he saw something of value in her. He thought that he could reach her, that he could save her, but she blamed him in the way that she blamed the village. After all, Obito had saved Kakashi’s life instead of saving himself. That ugliness inside of her told her that it should have been Kakashi, that she wanted it to have been Kakashi. He wanted her to stay, as if he would somehow become enough for her when he’d never been enough for her. She chose a dead man over him. It would always be Obito. And deep down, Kakashi knew that, as sad as it was to admit. She loved him, but not enough. She loved him, but not enough to stay.

He lowered his mask and leaned in to kiss her left cheek, then he was back to standing there, searching her dark eyes for something he would never find. She bit down on her lower lip, holding it tightly between her teeth, as if she meant to hold in everything she wanted to say to him. He’d shown her infinite kindness and leniency, and it translated to freedom. She should have thanked him, but she didn’t. He brushed some of her hair behind her right ear, and maybe she should have leaned into his touch, but she didn’t. She offered him nothing in return for his infinite kindness and leniency. She hurt him without trying. She’d always hurt him without trying.

“Where will you go?”

“I’m not sure.”

“I can’t ask you to stay?”

“I’ve never been good enough for you, and we both know it. I hate this place. I hate these people. I have so much hatred inside of me that sometimes I feel like that’s all I am,” Kana explained, stressing the words to him. His expression was serious, brows drawn together, a tight frown on his lips. He didn’t want that for her. He wanted her to change in the way that Obito had changed. He wanted her to stay, to build a new life, but she refused. “It hurts to look at you sometimes.” Her words were soft, spoken more for herself than for him. “I should go,” she finished, glancing over her shoulder at the road leading from the village. She didn’t know where to go, but she knew she didn’t want to be there.

“Ah, well, I won’t hold you up,” he replied, his tone striking something in her. She didn’t want him to miss her, but she knew that he would. She should have turned away, left him to watch her walk out of his life for the last time, but she leaned forward and kissed his right cheek, her lips barely brushing over his mask. When she stepped back, she avoided looking into his eyes. It was so odd to be looking into two gray eyes. “Take care of yourself.”

"Yeah. You too, Kakashi."

Chapter Text

Kana rested her hand above her eyes in some attempt to shield them from the unforgiving afternoon sunshine, squinting into the distance as if she could make out their destination. She hated the sweat gathered on her brow and at the nape of her neck, and pulling her long hair back did nothing to cool her heated flesh. She'd given up fanning herself over two hours ago, but every now and then, he waved his hand in her direction, sending a tiny bit of air in her direction. It was a pathetic display of chivalry, but she didn't have the energy to argue with him. She took joy in the fact that he was boiling in the same sunshine. He was so distracted that he missed when her attention shifted from the winding northern passage. She always found herself studying him, as if she had to reassure herself that he was present, that he was real, that he hadn't died during the war. He could have made fun of her for the habit, but he didn't. He should have been dead. He could have been dead. But he was baking in the afternoon sunshine with her, several hours outside of Yugakure.

"Do I look that good covered in sweat?"

The heat made them both cranky, so she instantly forgave his smart remark. The sweat on his face didn't bother her, but she still made a disgusted face that he caught from the corner of his eye. When he looked at her, he raised a brow, silently questioning her sudden fascination with him, so she shrugged. She'd given up trying to express exactly how she felt whenever she looked at him, really looked at him. He didn't fully understand. He'd brushed off his own mortality, as if the thought of dying meant nothing to him, and sometimes it made her chest ache. Without him, she would have been walking the winding road alone, and it was a miserable thought. He was alive. She was sure of it. But she still took his sweaty hand in her own and lightly squeezed his fingers. She touched him constantly, as if they were trapped in an endless loop of young love. It was sickeningly sweet.

"This resort better have air conditioning or I'm killing you in your sleep," she grumbled, her words barely audible. He chuckled and squeezed her hand, a silent dismissal of her threat, because they both knew she would never hurt him, like they both knew he would never hurt her. They argued, words like venom, and they suffered through exchanges of frigid silence, but they never resorted to blows. "You're sexy," she began, her voice sweet, a purr between them.

"I'm not carrying you," he interrupted her, throwing a smirk in her direction, "but thank you. You look like shit." She kicked his ankle, so he tried to trip her. When that didn't work, he released her hand to ruin her messy ponytail, tugging on it until her head tipped back, then he leaned over and kissed her cheek. She elbowed him for ruining her ponytail, so he smacked her ass. To fuck with him, she feigned a moan, earning another slap to her ass.

"Do you remember our wedding day?"

"We're not having public sex."

"Coward."

"It's not going to work, Kana."

"Fucking coward." He glared at her, a fire in his dark eyes, so she knew she was getting under his skin. Under his intense gaze, she shrugged. "I remember marrying a man with a spine, but I might be mistaken, because here we are and you're a coward," she continued, further pressing the issue. He grabbed her around the waist and she shrieked, almost jumping out of her skin. He threw her over his shoulder and roughly squeezed her ass, bringing a devilish smile to her lips. "Harder, Obito!"

"If they give our room away, I'm going to be pissed, Kana. I hope you know that," he sighed, already turning away from the road. She laughed in triumph. Whether they had sex or not, she'd successfully tricked him into carrying her, even if his shoulder dug into her stomach. "You're terrible."

"Shut up and fuck me, you coward."