BETA: Cmedina1

"Focus, Kana."

The palm aiming at my ribs was easily deflected as the sharp command from Iroha kick-started my brain into paying attention to the present.

For the last few minutes, we had been training hand to hand, which I found a small mercy considering my head was not in the training ground. Instead, it found itself in the Uchiha Compound, in my brother's room.

Itachi was acting strangely.

Don't get me wrong; he was good at hiding it, but I could tell there was something in his mind that was nagging at him. I would've brushed it off as it being because of recently losing both of his teammates except for the looks he kept sneaking my way. They started since Sasuke and I returned from the park and went throughout the afternoon and dinner. A part of me expected him to corner me in my room when everyone went to bed, the other wanted to demand he tell me what was wrong. Refraining from confronting him had never been harder and, honestly, I wanted it over with.

Just what could he'd been thinking so much about that it was literally eating at him? As far as I knew, nothing was going on that required that kind of attention from him. Unless it was about the Nakano Shrine meetings, though he had never behaved like this after one. In fact, he never behaved like this, period.

Out of nowhere, a palm connected solidly against my chest, sending me flying.

My bones cracked from the force of the blow, skin breaking as I slid on the ground. A cough racked my body as it tried to get oxygen into abused lungs.

Not a single cloud could be seen in the sky as I laid on my back; I just knew it was going to be black and blue by the time I made it to the house and would need to have someone smear the salve on if I wanted it to heal at the same time and not have to deal with the soreness on the parts I wouldn't be able to reach on my own days later.

Attempting to sit up after catching my breath took longer than I thought possible. Goddamn Iroha hadn't pulled any punches, hitting me with the full force of his Gentle Fist. The only thing I could be grateful about was that he had refrained from blocking the chakra points that fed just enough chakra to keep my bones from breaking.

"That's enough, Iroha-kun," Koji-sensei's rumble carried over to my ears as I laid unmoving, catching my breath. A part of me was grateful sensei had stopped the match, while the other snarled in anger and indignation at having been taken down so easily. It wasn't like me at all to get so distracted I lost.

"Are you alright, Kana?" The soft tone of sensei's voice next to me took me by surprise. I hadn't even noticed he moved until he was crouching next to me.

"I'm fine," I managed to wheeze out. Sensei didn't believe for a second, however. Not that I blamed him; I wouldn't have believed me either, especially when I knew, though I tried my hardest to mask it, he could see the pain through my eyes.

Without a word, he placed a green-glowing hand over the place Iroha had punched me, fixing the damage; the only sign showing his displeasure were his pursed lips. I suppressed a relieved, grateful sigh as I took a deep breath, glad my lungs weren't starving for air, not wanting to let Koji-sensei know how badly I had failed to protect myself, but I was pretty certain he knew. Thankfully, he didn't say a word about it, just gingerly pulled me to my feet, probably aware of my bruised back.

Together, we made our way back to where the other two were waiting at the edge of the training ground, under the shade of a tree.

Koji-sensei didn't have to say anything as he looked at the three of us standing to attention in front of him, a tactic he often used when he wanted to tell us something or when he was waiting for us to tell him what we did wrong. In this case, it definitely was the later of the two cases.

"She was distracted," Iroha gritted out, obviously piqued I hadn't been taking the training seriously enough for his taste.

Sensei nodded, pleased someone had started.

"Is that why you felt the need to teach her a lesson?"

The older boy nodded, never taking his eyes off of sensei, who turned to look at me as Raimaru trotted to his side also fixing me with intelligent dark eyes.

"Just because we're teammates doesn't mean I'll coddle her. The enemy won't wait for her to be focused until they attack. No, they'll take advantage of her distraction to eliminate her."

"Valid points," Sensei acknowledged, "Tell me, Kana, what do you have to say for yourself?"

I swallowed, my gaze finding the soil intriguing, "Won't happen again, sensei."

A sigh passed through his lips, "This year's Chunin exams will take place here in Suna. The three of you have already been nominated," The three of us looked at him with wide eyes. Even though we had been expecting it, having him say it filled us with excitement, "And if you accept, will be participating in it." At that, he handed us the slips for the exam.

I took mine with trembling fingers, slightly overwhelmed at the meaning. If we passed and became chunin, we wouldn't be a team anymore; each one of us would go our own way, following what we wanted to do as ninja. If we were lucky we would be part of the same team, but that would only depend on our chosen fields. So far, the only one I thought I would be seeing more often would be Iroha, since Touma wanted to become a researcher for R&D. From what I had learned of him, Touma loved solving puzzles, which made him an invaluable member of our team since he, more often than not, took the lead whenever we had to put the pieces together for our targets to make sense.

Iroha, on the other hand, wanted to continue until he made jonin; something we both had in common, seeing as I also wanted to reach the rank, except that I was fighting against time to become an S-ranked kunoichi , not just a jonin.

Honestly, it would be bittersweet whether or not we made chunin, either at the same time or not. Either way, the team would end up dissolving and, like it or not, we would be made to work with others more often than not.

Once we all had our slips, Koji-sensei nodded, dismissing us for the day with the added comment that we had a month to prepare.

I was ready to go home and take a much-needed shower when sensei called me back, "Not you, Kana."

Wondering what it could be about, I turned back to him. Since meeting him, I had never though sensei was intimidating, seeing him with his arms crossed over his chest and the blank expression on his face gave me pause. He looked like someone I didn't want to cross.

We stood silently for a moment. Me, because I couldn't get a read of his thoughts, while he sized me up, looking for something.

"Are you going to tell me what has you so distracted you weren't able to block an attack I've seen you block multiple times before?" He finally asked.

Oh, you know, just the impending Coup the Uchiha are planning and did I mention my brother is acting strangely after witnessing the death of his teammate? No? Oh, excuse me, I thought I did. Yeah, no, I wasn't about to mention it.

"Just worried, sensei. Itachi just lost his team and I don't know what's going to happen to his ninja career now," I settled for. Better the truth, no matter how twisted it was than a lie.

He looked at me for a few seconds before he relaxed, accepting my explanation.

"I heard the boy was killed and the girl quit, deciding life as a ninja wasn't for her…" He said, leaving the sentence hanging as if waiting for me to continue it.

"Yeah, which left my brother with no team, only the jonin supervisor. I want to know what'll happen now since, obviously, he can't take the chunin exams without a team, how will he continue? I don't see my brother being a genin for the rest of his life."

Honestly, I was in the dark here, only knowing Itachi made it into Anbu but not how he got there. Would he be taken in by someone as an apprentice? I didn't know and it was eating at me.

"He could be given new teammates," Koji-sensei offered his insight, "If he's as good as you, the council won't waste his potential as a ninja by putting him in the genin-corps."

"He's better than I am," I conceded, proud of the fact.

"Then you have nothing to worry about," He said, a smile pulling at his lips, "He'll get a new team. But, he won't make the cut for this chunin exams. His teammates will have to catch up since they'd be new Academy graduates."

I nodded, not bothered by that. Koji-sensei had just taken a weight off my shoulders, small as it was, but it was still something.

"Now, run along. You need to take care of that back or you won't be able to move fluidly."

Smiling, I nodded, "Hai, sensei."

After a long bath, perfectly deserved bath, I found myself at the park again with Sasuke. Soon after we arrived, Yoshino left a tired-looking Shikamaru in our care. I was skeptical about it because, seriously, who leaves their three-year-old child in the care of an eight-year-old? No matter how mature for their age they were, children were children. Then I remembered I was in the Elemental Nations and already a genin, it was perfectly acceptable for her to leave him in my care.

For the past hour, Sasuke had been trying without much success to make Shikamaru play with him. The Nara just curled on himself and completely ignored my brother as he feigned sleep. He was good, don't get me wrong, but he still had a way to go to completely fool me.

Setting a tag on each on them to alert me if they wandered off or were in danger of falling from the swings (one could never be too careful with Sasuke once he got going), left my mind with some free time to wonder.

After leaving the Academy, I hadn't kept tabs on the kids that went there. Who was I kidding? I never even bothered to learn the names of the children I should have graduated with had it not been for skipping ahead, so I had no clue as to who would take the two vacant places in Itachi's team. Even with Koji-sensei's confirmation that Itachi would be getting new teammates, I still worried over how they would fare. I knew I didn't have to worry about my brother surviving until he was older, thanks to the manga, but I did worry about what losing more people would do to him.

Ninja life wasn't easy and I couldn't begrudge the girl, Shinko, for quitting. Sometimes, I found myself wondering what civilian life would be like (no worrying about finding a kunai stuck to my back under the enemy's hand would be nice), but I wouldn't have the training needed to keep myself alive. Sometimes, I wondered if I could just leave it all; go away and leave Konoha behind, find a small village to settle in and live the life of a civilian, only to squash those thoughts away soon after before they could take hold. I knew myself and, for as much as a quitter as I had been in my previous life, I just couldn't quit the life I had already formed. It wasn't just because I would be hunted and put down like a dog for defecting, but because I had things to do that no one else could; things that would unravel in the way the story had if I didn't do something.

It scared me most of the time, to be fair. So many times had I wanted to just quit, but I kept convincing myself I couldn't. The knowledge was taking its toll on me and Itachi acting strange years before the massacre wasn't helping.

I had promised myself I would let him come to me when he was ready to talk, but he was slowly getting under my overly tense nerves with his behavior. There had to be a way to make him talk without being obvious about it—

"You're going to hurt yourself if you continue thinking so hard."

Blinking at suddenly being pulled out of my head, it took a lot of self-control not to hurl a kunai when I noticed the speaker standing too close for comfort as he peered down at me, a smirk playing on his lips.

Letting out a huff of annoyance, I retorted from my spot sitting against a tree, "And you're going to end with a kunai up your butt if you ever sneak up on me again."

Shisui threw back his head, laughing as he took a step back, completely ignoring my treat, pulling the attention of a few of the kids and adults to us, but they soon returned to what they were doing when they didn't see anything interesting going one.

"I'm serious."

"Nah, you like me too much to even attempt to hurt me," He replied, completely at ease.

My gaze went over his form as I debated whether to use what little energy I had left from the morning training with the team to prove him wrong but decided against it, deeming the task too strenuous seeing as Shisui was in top condition and, clearly, I wasn't.

"Shisui-nii!"

"Hey there, squirt," The older boy greeted with a smile as Sasuke came running once he spotted Shisui, pulling a disgruntled Shikamaru behind him by the wrist. I held back a snicker at this expression, mentally clapping my shoulder with a hand for a job well done.

"Look, Shisui-nii, I've been practicing," Sasuke exclaimed, shuffling one of the decks of cards I had given them to entertain themselves.

Shisui paid rapt attention as my little brother went through the magic trick I'd pulled yesterday, giving him — and Shikamaru, who was paying attention — pointers on what exercises he needed to do in order for his movements to become faster.

Once he was done, the two kids started practicing like their lives depended on pulling off the trick. At least, it kept them from trouble.

Turning to me with a raised brown, "That your doing?" He asked, settling beside me and leaning against the tree trunk.

I raised an eyebrow in response, "Can you blame me?" There was no point in pretending I didn't know what he was talking about.

He chuckled, "No, I've been around Sasuke before. I can do with him being distracted by something else."

That made me laugh. Yes, a bored Sasuke wasn't one anyone wanted to be around.

"Who's the other kid?" He asked, curious, "Haven't seen him before," Narrowing his eyes, he took in Shikamaru's appearance and body language, "He looks like a Nara," Was the conclusion he came to as he blinked his eyes in confusion, frowning a little.

"Do you have a problem with that?"

Shaking his head, he answered, "No, just surprised. The Uchiha don't usually mix with the other clans unless it's for a mission. Even then it's rare; there aren't a lot of Uchiha who don't go into the police."

I nodded at his explanation, offering my own, "I brought Sasuke to play here yesterday. We met Shikamaru and his mom, Nara Yoshino, who left him under my care today."

Those dark eyes snapped to mine, his mind taking in what I wasn't saying with a shrewdness only a veteran at reading between the lines and knowing me would understand.

"You mean to say," His tone had exponentially lowered to only a barely audible whisper which had me straining my ears to hear him, lips barely moving, "You took Sasuke out of the compound to make friends with the other clans' kids to see there is more than the Uchiha. You made the Nara Matriarch confident she could leave the clan heir with you in less than a day."

The blink I gave him was all the answer he needed as he slumped against the tree, arms folding over his chest as he closed his eyes deep in thought. I couldn't fault him, I still didn't understand what I had done to make Yoshino comfortable enough she could leave her son in my care.

I continued to watch the kids. Sasuke dropping his cards while Shikamaru had better luck executing the trick; with more practice, he could be really good. Then again, the kid was patient and Sasuke certainly wasn't, which was bringing him down. That was something I needed to fix in my brother; impatience was good, but being patient was more rewarding.

"Just what are you planning, Kana?"

The inquiry was said so softly I wouldn't have heard it if I hadn't been sitting right next to him.

Shisui, for his part, was focused on me when I turned my head to look at him again.

Lightly patting his shoulder, I offered him a small smile, "Nothing for you to worry about."

Patience was something Itachi had in spades. He had needed to be patient in order to access his chakra, to be old enough to start training, go through the Academy (not that he had had to stay the required amount of years there), learn katas, how to best throw kunai and shuriken, learn jutsus—

Get promoted to chunin.

Now, he needed to be patient to get two new teammates who would slow him down as they would be fresh out of the Academy; it was the last thing he needed, but it was something he would endure to get to the next rank.

However, meeting the new additions was the furthest thing from his mind as he patiently waited for Shisui to arrive at the cliff overlooking the Naka River, the place they usually met.

No one knew he was there, except for the older Uchiha, whom he had contacted via crow. It had been a stroke of luck Shisui had been in the village, having finished his mission in less than the allotted time.

"Yo," The greeting came behind him, slightly to his right, but Itachi wasn't fazed, already used to how fast the older boy could move.

"You were right, there's something going on with Kana."

At this, Itachi opened his eyes and turned to look at the young boy he had come to consider his closest friend.

Shisui had a frown marring his face, making him look older than the eleven years he was. It was obvious he was deeply thinking about something; Itachi wasn't left guessing long.

"She took Sasuke to the park."

That Itachi had known about and wasn't sure where Shisui was going with it, so he waited to hear the rest of what was bothering his friend.

"Sasuke was playing with a kid. They were learning some trick she showed them with the cards, which requires fast hands. That wasn't what confused me, though," Shisui continued after drawing a breath, looking straight at Itachi, "The kid's a Nara; not just any Nara from the branch family, though. No, she got Sasuke to befriend the Nara Clan's heir, whose mother left under Kana's care."

That, that was not something he had been expecting.

"How—" He started, only to be cut off.

"That's what I asked her, but she claimed not to know either why the Clan's wife thought it prudent to leave her only child, and heir, with an Uchiha," Clearly, it baffled Shisui as he ran a hand through his messy hair in agitation.

Itachi thought about it for a moment, taking a second to organize his thoughts, "She wants Sasuke out of the Compound."

"Of course she does," Shisui agreed with a snort, though a scowl made his face home, "She wants him as far away from talks of the coup and your father as possible. I don't need to be a genius to know that. Everyone who was at the meeting and has a working mind would arrive to the same conclusion, but I feel like she's trying to get something else out of it."

Shisui started pacing, unable to keep still as he wracked his brain for a possible — and plausible — answer, hands making his hair messier than it already was.

Meanwhile, Itachi thought his sister was right in getting Sasuke as far away from their home as she could, using the excuse of going to the park was a good way of integrating him into the village, though he couldn't help but think, like Shisui, that she had an ulterior motive for doing so; however, at this time he couldn't see it. For now, it was enough that Shisui shared his views.

After a long while of indecision, Itachi had finally confided in the older boy his thoughts about Kana. To say Shisui hadn't believed him would be an understatement, but he hadn't needed much convincing after the seed had been planted. Especially after he recounted to the older boy their first meeting with Danzō, whom Shisui, in no uncertain terms, told him to not trust.

"We would need to catch her at it," Shisui mumbled, not once stopping his pacing, "She would have to do or say something that she shouldn't know for us to be able to have a solid footing to question her, but she could cover it up with a lie."

Itachi raised a brow at that, "She has done and said things she shouldn't know about."

Shisui waved him off, "I know, but she could comment on it just being your imagination," Stopping, he rounded on Itachi, suspicious, "Are you sure it's not your imagination playing tricks on you?"

"It's happened too often for it to be my mind playing tricks on me," He answered, the sigh he wanted to release never making it pass his lips.

Shisui let out a sigh for him, again shoving a hand through his hair, "I know, but, if you're right, she would be in constant danger if anyone heard about it."

That had been what had given Itachi pause in confronting his sister the night before, having her confirm it would make him worry about her even more than he already did. Suddenly, he was glad he had taken a page out of his sister's book and put a barrier around them, keyed only to the two of them; one of his own creation, though Kana had kept an eye on the seal as he did it.

"I know, which is why we cannot let anyone else figure it out."

Nodding, Shisui turned back to pacing, "We would need her to tell us what she knows or we won't be able to protect her."

Itachi almost wanted to snort at that, "If she hasn't said anything so far, what makes you think she will?"

"She will," The older boy said with a confidence Itachi wasn't feeling, "The mind can only take so much before it's looking for help. If you're right, the knowledge will get to her and she will go to you."

Yes, that was something Itachi could see happening, but would it?

"She has to know what happens to the clan if negotiations fail."

Itachi shocked his head at that, "Not necessarily. She knows things, but she doesn't know it all."

Shisui rounded on him again, "Then why keep Sasuke away? Sure, to keep him ignorant, but there's something that doesn't make sense here."

Itachi didn't have an answer for that, though he agreed with Shisui. There was something Kana knew, something he felt they needed to be ready for.

As the two of them contemplated their next course of action, Itachi hoped against all odds it wouldn't be too bad.

A/N:

And another chapter!

Thank you everyone for reviewing and for being patient with this chapter, it's been a couple of months. I thought it would be shorter, but it surprised me when I noticed how long it had gotten since I had a little trouble at the beginning, but the muse came through lol

Like usual, I really hope it meets your expectations :)