Note: So I herpa-derped a few times and placed Kirigakure in the Land of Waves, instead of the Land of Water. Whoops.

Also, my sense of time is total fuckery. With the way I timed the events of everything, Kana's been out with the Akatsuki for like two freaking years. Where the eff was I coming up with 7-8 months? Bleh. I have so much shit to fix in past chapters D:

That being said, there seems to be some confusion over how her chakra works. To put it simply, imagine the black chakra like Celty's abilities from Durarara. She can mold it into basically whatever shape she wants, except it burns the shit out of other people that touch it whereas Celty's ability doesn't seem to directly injure someone just through contact. The white chakra restores. You know, one destroys and one fixes. Light and dark shit.

Leaves crunched beneath the crushing weight of Hanako's paws, dry shreds of their remains scattering through the air in the wake of the bakeneko's movements. Kana could smell the dirt that was kicked up with the leaves as they rushed through the forest.

'Sad girl, we will catch up to them,' she thought reassuringly, 'Your enemies were sloppy. Tracking them will be simple.'

That didn't do anything to ease the kunoichi's nerves. There was always the chance that whoever took the bait was taking them to a separate location from the team that had been left as an ambush for the rescue squad. If the Sound was already onto what plans the Leaf had going on in conjunction with the Sand, that was a very strong possibility.

Hanako leaped over a fallen log, 'You are a ruthless interrogator. If that happens then you will get your information.'

Damn psychic link. Kana frowned and buried her fingers into the familiar black fur of the monstrously large cat that she had known since they were both young, 'They were powerful, but we're just tracking low-ranked Oto-nin. They might not know anything - they could have been ordered to go back to another base.'

She pushed a little more chakra into her Kurogan to expand her field of vision as they began to approach the border of the Land of Stone. The country harbored no major shinobi village so they didn't have any of their Anbu patrolling the nation lines, and the closest Iwagakure squad was nearly four miles away; they'd have no problem getting into the country undetected.

Even so, they had been running after the Sound ninja for nearly an hour - how could they be so far-

'I can sense them, too,' Hanako purred, 'Hang on.'

The bakeneko funneled chakra to her legs and picked up speed; Kana probably would have tumbled off if she hadn't seen the thought occur to Hanako before the warning reached her metaphorical ears. An anticipatory satisfaction began to brew in her chest as they closed in on the four shinobi running in the same direction - nothing could outrun Hanako.

The team only had a split second to sense the pair before they crashed through the bushes. When the widening of their eyes told Kana that they had registered that they were enemies, she was already picking at the open cut on her thumb to smear the blood over her left hand.

Two of the Sound-nin were trapped in black barrier prisons, one bouncing off of the wall with an agonized scream as the chakra burned through his flesh. His partner learned through his mistake and froze.

Kana jumped off of the bakeneko just as she lunged for the largest of the bunch. She grappled the shinobi to the ground, barrel-rolling with her arms and legs wrapped around him before slamming against a tree trunk. As soon as they came to a stop she was getting up on her knees with a firm hand wrapped around his neck.

"You're going to tell me where those Anbu are being taken," she hissed, reaching up to break the wrist connected to the hand that was trying to form a hand seal, "Don't fuck around!"

Hanako released a ferocious growl around the throat precariously held in her jaw for effect. Ah, teamwork.

"Go to hell! We ain't telling you a thing!" the shinobi that hadn't been burned by the barrier shouted.

The kunoichi shifted so that her knee was holding the ninja down so that her hands were free to form hand seals that would impale the imprisoned ninja with dozens of spikes, impaling every major organ and artery before dissipating and dropping his lifeless body to the ground.

Looking back down to the Sound-nin underneath her, she ignored the horrified cries of his teammates, "You are not walking away - I am going to kill every single one of you. The benefit of giving me the fucking information I want," Kana grabbed a kunai from her leg holster and drove it into his upper arm, "Is that your deaths will be short. You try to lie, feed me bad intel or fight me in any other way -" she dragged the kunai up to his armpit, " - And your deaths will be the bloodiest, most painful, longest murders ever to go down in the history of murders. Do you fucking understand?!"

Fear flashed across what little of the shinobi's face was exposed, "I-I-I - Please -"

Good. He was afraid. Easier to push past his defenses, if there were any left. Kana eased from the Kurogan to the Ishikigan and wasted no time in splashing into the icy sensation of his consciousness. To be fair she didn't really need to go through the hassle of threatening the squad, but she needed to convey just how blindingly angry she was over the situation. His thoughts ended up being a scattered mess, which meant she didn't need to use genjutsu on him to turn him into a human vegetable, so at least something productive came from it.

The shinobi was a jonin - no one of particular importance to the chain of command. He specialized in using sound waves as projectiles, blah, blah, blah... Kana zeroed in on his knowledge of hideouts. He may not be important to Orochimaru, but he was still a jonin that was traveling in the general direction of where she had suspected a secret base would be located if Anbu were being taken from Suna and the Hidden Stone...

Prison base in the Land of Waves, a laboratory on Demon Island, the hideouts in Kusa and the Land of Sound were destroyed and abandoned - huh, that was news to her. Somewhat irrelevant, but it was good to keep in mind for later.

Bingo.

A triumphant grin spread across her face at the glimpse of a familiar scene. The Land of Birds was a relatively popular tourist destination for its famed annual bird migration; even if Kana didn't exactly vacation regularly as a shinobi, she had scene plenty of pamphlets and brochures that advertised the festivals associated with the bird season. This particular shinobi seemed to take advantage of his station by attending those festivals almost religiously.

The kunoichi carefully dug through his knowledge of the country, watching him travel to and from the country's main village through his eyes. The hideout entrance was cut out of a boulder that had a snake carved at the base, maybe fifty miles into the country border. It was an underground base with multiple levels but didn't have the intricate design of other hideouts, which meant that Orochimaru probably didn't frequent it. He probably just used it as a storage for those he deemed too good for his normal prison...

Kana frowned and dug around a bit on that particular subject, albeit in vain; this guy didn't know anything about Orochimaru or his travel habits. Oh well. What he had given her had been enough. Pulling out of his consciousness, her hands tightened around his head and neck before snapping his spine. She looked over at Hanako, who was beginning to drool from having her mouth open for so long, and gave a slight nod just as her jaw snapped shut around the throat of her captive.

The bakeneko was already tearing the last Sound shinobi apart when Kana began to climb onto her back, making sure to relay exactly what she had just seen. Just like before Hanako took off into the forest with her destination in mind; they were moving so fast that Kana could barely make out the details of their surroundings, and the wind blew hard enough for Kana's Akatsuki cloak to flutter almost violently behind them.

While the situation they were in had been urgent before, what with needing to chase down the Sound shinobi before they got too far for Hanako to track, she knew that they were at the point where they didn't need to rush this. The psychic link between them meant that their thoughts and emotions melded together to the point where they sometimes couldn't tell one from the other until they broke physical contact, and that meant that the monstrously large cat was experiencing the building rage and anxiety caused by whatever unknown horrors that Orochimaru's hideout held for them.

With that knowledge in mind Kana began to calm herself down, if only for Hanako's sake. They couldn't just barge into the base with their heads up their asses and their pulses racing like this - they needed to take a breather and work out a strategy after scouting out the area. This wasn't like stealing Orochimaru's ring, where Kisame and Itachi knew where she was and would come looking if she went missing; if Kana screwed this up then there wouldn't be any backup to save them.

"I'd be sad if you died."

She reached up with one hand to brush her fingertips over the shoulder, tracing the white twin rings of scars that were hidden by layers of black fabric.

"Please be safe. Please, stay alive."

They'd take this slow. They'd be safe.

'What's our next move?'

Kana didn't look up from the food pills that were beginning to melt in her hands, "Gonna sleep a bit first," she murmured while smearing the bittersweet residue over her fingers, covering the tattoos like engine grease stains, "Replenish some of my chakra. Then I'll probably just sneak in and hope for the best."

Hanako lifted her head from where it was laying with an expression that perfectly conveyed the disapproval being transmitted through the psychic link, 'You don't have a plan?'

It wasn't as if she hadn't tried to form one in the fucking five hours they had been lurking the base; Kana's head still felt as if it was going to split open from having to use her Kurogan for as long and as intensely as she did. Fact of the matter was, there was simply no way to get to her comrades without being detected. Not only was it a multi-floor base that had a layout similar to that of a beehive, but it was built to be narrow and very compact.

Sure, she could take things incredibly slow and merge all three dojutsu and basically genjutus the absolute hell out of everyone she came across, but that was only if she really wanted to induce an aneurysm on herself or suffer some sort of stroke. There were three strange holding cells that seemed to be made of some sort of chakra and four laboratories that were currently housing experiment candidates on three separate levels, which meant Kana would be working her eyes to death.

At the very best she could clear a way for those who were able to move on their own and carry others. The compound had nearly four dozen shinobi stationed within it, all that used that bizarre sound-ninjutsu that was bred from Orochimaru's experimentation; Kana had only fought Sound-nin a few times so she wasn't entirely sure how she'd fare in a series of close-range battles. They probably all had ear augmentation that rendered themselves resistant, if not impervious, to sound attacks so she wasn't relying too much on friendly-fire and collateral damage being a helpful player in this.

As much as the kunoichi wanted to take things as safely as possible, she wasn't left with many options other than trying to keep things quiet for as long as possible.

"Hanako, I'm gonna leave a clone at the entrance to bring them back here. I'm trusting you to keep them safe until I can get everyone out."

The bakeneko shifted her weight so that it was propped up on her arms before turning to look off into the distance, 'Of course, Sad Girl.'

Kana could sense the worry in her old friend, and could see it in the faraway look in her eyes as the sun began to set. She sighed and finished off the food pills before curling into the crook of the cat's body to hopefully get a couple hours of sleep, 'It'll be okay. We've gotten out of worse situations than this.'

The hideout was dark, thanks to the preferred dimly-lit lighting setup the Sound's bases all seemed to have. Normally Kana would complain about the strain on her eyes but, with the aid of the Kurogan, she was thankful for any potential upperhand she could have against her enemies as she ran through the narrow stone halls.

As opposed to her infiltration of the last base, where she was getting Orochimaru's ring, the kunoichi didn't skid into a corner and drop out of sight when footsteps began to echo through the hall she was currently in. Instead she focused her chakra to her hands and knees before jumping up to the ceiling, using the chakra to grip the smooth surface of the chiseled rock much like she did on her mission with the Sand Anbu. As they drew closer Kana carefully redirected her chakra to the back of her hand to form the long blade of her demon arm.

"I don't understand why you're complaining," the shorter of the three said, "It's gorgeous out here! The weather is great, the villages always hold festivals, and we get paid to enjoy the benefits of-"

The trio turned the corner while the tallest shook his head, "You're such a fucking fag, Shiyo. Worried about the pretty birds and flowers - where's your sense of adventure?!"

Kana held her breath and suppressed her chakra signature as they passed beneath her.

"I have a sense of adventure, I just appreciate the finer things life."

They didn't notice when their companion, who lagged behind, was suddenly grabbed by the kunoichi when she released the ceiling to reach down and wrap an arm around his head before slitting his throat. She flipped down to the floor in silence, keeping the man's head in her arms to avoid him dropping to the ground with any unwanted noise. The other two dropped similarly and it didn't take long for Kana to drag their bodies into a shadowy corner.

Quiet. Careful.

She continued through the hall with her first objective in mind. The Anbu in the holding cells on levels two and three most likely were going to be in the best shape, in theory, so that was going to be her first stop. Once Kana got them out then she could try to form a squad with three others that were up to fighting.

Heart racing and boots silently clacking against the stone floor, she wasted no time in racing around a corner and dashing down the hall to the next guard that met his fate just a few moments later when his neck was snapped. Blood splashed over her arm when her chakra blade was driven through the belly of another Sound-nin, hand slapped over his mouth to muffle his surprised and agonized cry.

The first set of stairs led to a considerably cooler hallway that had even dimmer lighting than before. Did Sound shinobi have enhanced eyesight or something? Why the hell did they insist on bases where you can barely see what's going on?

Kana paused to press herself into a corner, crouching and catching her breath while carefully scanning the current floor. There were two holding cells on this floor but she couldn't see who was in it - the only reason she even knew that they were holding cells was because there was no other possible reason for multiple rooms to look like cages made from chakra.

She frowned at the thought. The bars weren't made of a normal chakra, but one that was dark and strangely familiar.

With that in mind the kunoichi pushed herself out of the corner and continued running; it didn't matter what kind of chakra it was as long as she could absorb it without it killing her.

There were only four guards stationed outside of the first holding cell, and they were too enveloped in some trivial debate over the dipping noodles versus ramen to notice her coming. With the element of surprise giving her an upper hand Kana pulled out a scroll from her belt and tore it open to summon two marked kunai while paying attention to their mannerisms; the one on the far left was skittish and was having difficulty proving his point about dipping noodles being a more satisfying experience, meaning he probably panicked easily.

Kana launched the three kunai and teleported to the first one just as it burrowed into the alpha male's chest, reducing her demon arm to chakra claws and gripping his throat. She didn't wait for his body to drop before teleporting to the second kunai and snapping the Sound-nin's neck. The third fell in a similar manner, and the skittish man was too shell-shocked to respond before Kana was springing onto his chest and tearing out his throat.

"C-captain... Yokai?"

Black hair slapped against her face when she whipped around towards the cell, "Torune!"

The Aburame was sagging into the wall, clad in the plain grey tunic that the other prisoners, with Tatsuma holding him upright. What relief Kana had felt was short-lived as she took in the exhausted and bandaged appearances of her comrades and nation's allies. It looked as if they hadn't slept since they had been kidnapped and most of them had multiple limbs wrapped in stained gauze.

"I... Don't... Under..." Imai's words were almost incoherent, lost in the dry hoarseness of his voice, and his eyes looked as if they were too heavy for him to keep open.

Kana tentatively reached out to one of the bars, "I'm gonna get you guys out, just-" She halted mid-sentence when the chakra surrounding the bar jumped out to wrap around her fingers, snaking up to her wrist. There was an unfamiliar sensation of her energy being drained away when the chakra slithered up to her elbow but, no matter how hard she tried, there seemed to be no way for Kana to absorb the chakra.

She released the bar and staggered back, looking at her hand and then back to the bar where the black flame-like energy was receding.

"The prison... It drains your chakra," Tatsuma explained, "That's how it keeps us here."

Well that would have been nice to know before she started grabbing things... The kunoichi looked up from her hand to the imprisoned Anbu, "Do you know what's powering it?"

The majority of the group shook their heads but one, a Hyuga, raised his head at the question, "A couple of weeks ago... Th-they took me... Into... A lab. There was..."

"Slow down, take your time," Kana knelt down so that she was eye level with them, "There are two labs in the facility. Do you remember which one it was?"

The Hyuga nodded slowly, "It... Was the level below us... There's a girl there... The... Chakra on... The bars... Is the same..."

Someone was maintaining a chakra shield over the bars? And, beyond that, someone was able to sap chakra through the shield..? The kunoichi frowned as she studied the cage door - there wasn't a chakra thread linking the bars to the user and, what was more, it looked like each bar was locked in a barrier prison.

She gave a slight nod, "I'll be back once I've figured out a way to disable this. Just hang on," she said before turning to dash back to the stairs.

There was something eerily familiar about the chakra surrounding the gated prison - not just in style, but in chakra nature as well. It was dark, and had solidified into a smooth energy as opposed to normal chakra that was like a blue flame. Some people had slight color variations, only tinges, and everyone's chakra burned differently, but, in the end, it was still a blue flame.

Kana gripped a wall to use her momentum to skid around a corner, barely noticing the temperature difference that came with entering the lower level.

Why was this chakra so different from everyone else's?

Reaching back to grab the hilt of Kioku, she focused her chakra around the blade like she had been taught.

Who was this person? Another experiment?

The katana disemboweled three more Sound-shinobi and she ignored the blood that splattered over her thighs as she continued running.

Could it be a jinchuriki? How many were left? Kana counted - there was the Nine-Tails, which was in Konoha and had that bizarre orange chakra, the Three and Four-Tails were both still on the loose... Wasn't the Six-Tails in some missing-nin from Kiri?

Two Oto-nin were decapitated when she rounded a corner; their heads bounced off of the walls as their bodies crumpled to the cold stony floor in a pile of limbs, and three more were run through by Kioku. One guard attempted to shout for help, but was cut off by the blood that flooded his airways when the chakra-charged blade cut into his throat.

The door to the laboratory swung open with a loud bang that caused Kana's ears to ring. She didn't care.

"Well, well, isn't this a surprise," Kabuto smirked when he had turned to face the intruder, cool as a cucumber as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

Kana ignored him, too.

Her Kurogan deactivated, ironically enough, to get a better look at the small figure floating in a test tube.

The one with the dark grey hair that shifted colors when silver-white eyes slid open to peer curiously at the kunoichi still standing in the doorway.

The chakra.

The black chakra.

It made sense now.

"There's... That's..." words failed to string together in a coherent sentence as Kana's mind desperately worked to make sense of the situation.

Her entire life - all twenty years of it - she had been told that only one Kana could ever exist at a time, that their eyes harbored the power that passed onto a more capable candidate once they were destroyed. Of course she had known that it was complete and utter bullshit, but there hadn't been a record that she had come across that ever mentioned multiple incarnations of the Kana living at once.

But, there it was. Absolute, undeniable proof.

The little girl floating in the bluish-green fluid, with dozens of wires attached to her head and body... The little girl whose chakra types were twisting and turning within her like oil and water, brushing against each other without ever mixing...

The little girl staring back at her was a Kana Shimi.