"Danzo is...he's..." Hade looked at Itachi with a bewildered look, not daring to believe it.
"He's the new Hokage. It could have been Kakashi but..." Itachi shrugged with a sigh.
"This isn't going to be easy,the village was left in utter ruin thanks to Pein and it won't help that Danzo will probably be planning something against us." said Hade.
"We have to protect Tsunade and place her most trusted anbu to guard her, there's a possibility Danzo might plan to harm Tsunade with Root." Itachi said as he sat down next to her on the porch and she rested her head on his shoulder.
"How's Sasuke and Sakura?"
"They're fine, they only suffered minor injuries when the hospital was attacked..."then she had a small smile playing on her lips. "Naruto was welcomed like a true hero."
"It's the first time since I saw something like that." he said with a smile of his own. "Naruto has finally won over the village."
"His dream is halfway there, now he just needs to be Hokage...maybe in a few more years until Tsunade has groomed him for that seat." she smirked. "We are going to be a bit busy for a while, help rebuild the village."
"We are also having a few of the allied villages come and help rebuild it." he said and then looked at her questioningly. "There still something that you wanted to tell me, what is it?"
She smiled and shook her head as she wrapped her hands around her legs and brought them to her chest.
"Nothing, it's not important right now." He took her hand and she looked up at him.
"Nothing's ever not important Hade...what is it?" he said and gave her a serious stare. She knew he was going to find out sooner or later, with his sharingan it would be really easy to see. She sighed and sat up straight to face him, she took his hands in hers and gave him a small smile.
"Activate your sharingan Itachi." Itachi looked at her with a small tilt of his head and then did what he was told. She watched as his eyes changed color and three totems appear on each eye. Then she slowly guided his hands to her abdomen and placed them there. "Lower your eyes to our hands." she whispered.
Itachi raised an eyebrow but looked down all the same; when his eyes finally reached her hands he froze. Hade watched his expression change but she wasn't able to tell what he was thinking. His eyes snapped to hers and then back at her stomach, Hade began to worry for a moment until he saw his lips for into a thin line, then a smile and then into the biggest smile she had ever seen that made him so striking and beautiful she couldn't help but turn red.
"There's so much I wanted to tell Tsunade..." Naruto said as he and Sakura sat on a stack of plank wood that had been placed for the in-coming builders.
"Don't worry Naruto she'll wake up. Tsunada-sama is a strong woman, she's the Hokage after all."
"Long time no see Naruto! Sakura!" They turned their heads and saw old man Tazuna from the Hidden Mist Village who they had helped protect three years ago when they've had their first C-rank mission. Next to him was a boy around thirteen years old who seemed to be his grandson and looked very familiar.
"Never thought I'd see you heroes again, Naruto." the young boy said.
"Inari and Tazuna?!" Naruto said remembering them and he smiled. "Inari you look all grown up, and gramps you look even older."
"Give me a break kid..."
"I'm a carpenter now. We are here to help rebuild Konoha." Inari said. "And I thought I'd come and say hi while we were here."
"I'm sorry about what happened with Gato but thanks to you our village is more prosperous. Thank You." Tazuna said with a small bow of his head.
"Yeah, now its our turn to help out."
"Thanks Inari." Naruto said with a sheepish grin and scratching the back of his head.
"Oh so you're already here." Kakashi said as he walked towards them.
"Hey Kakashi, we came as soon as we heard about Konoha."
"I see."
"Hmm...Where's Sasuke? I wanted to talk to him too." Tazuna said and they traded glances.
"Well...he's not here at the moment..."
"I've been here the whole time."
"Gyah!" Naruto jumped and glared at the raven Uchiha who had appeared out of nowhere. "No you haven't!"
"Just because you were too blind to notice doesn't mean I hadn't been here, idiot." Sasuke said and nodded in the direction of Tazuna and Inari. "It's good to see you again."
"You've grown into quite a man heh." Tazuna said. "To be honest I liked you better than Naruto, you gave me less of a headache."
"Hey!" Naruto said while everyone else laughed, even Sasuke smirked.
After a whiled they had to say good-bye and they headed back to work. Naruto waved and then looked at Sasuke who was looking at Sakura and it seemed he hadn't realized it. Naruto smirked and placed a hand on Sasuke's shoulder.
"Hey Sasuke, Sakura did a nice job patching you up." He said and Sasuke looked at him confused.
"What?"
"She healed you didn't she?" Naruto asked and watched as Sakura turned a slightly bit pink on the cheeks and Sasuke tried not to show any emotions.
"So what if I did Naruto?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Nothing, nothing." Naruto said with a smile.
"Guys!" They turned to see Kiba arrive on Akamaru's back.
"Guys don't freak out okay. The Hokage's been dismissed."
"What?!" Naruto snapped.
"The new Hokage is some guy named Danzo. I've never heard of him but I heard he's a pretty shady guy."
Danzo! Sasuke growled and clenched his fists in anger. The others were shocked as well but Kiba wasn't done yet.
"And it's gotten worse, he has given permission to dispose of Kano as a missing-nin!"
"What?!" Now it was Kakashi's turn to sound out raged and for the first time his student's looked at him surprised.
"Kakashi we have to do something." Sakura said. "What's worse...once Enama finds out she's not going to keep a cool head...and so will Kenta."
"I have news about him too." Kiba said and looked at Kakashi. "I'm sorry, but he's seriously injured...he was attacked in his cell. No one knows how but Hade said there's a possibility he might not make it."
"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled as Kakashi took off running. Naruto looked at his other teammates who were still digesting what they had heard.
"He's going to the Uchiha compound." Sasuke said. "He's going to talk to Hade."
"Yell, more like it." Sakura says. "I've never seen Kakashi-sensei like this."
"Thanks Kiba." Naruto said. With a nod Kiba left then turned to Sakura. "We need to find Sai and ask him about Danzo."
"Why him?" Sasuke asked.
"Sai is a Root shinobi, he works for Danzo." Sakura explained.
"Then lets find him." Sasuke said. It was a few minutes later that they found him and asked him to tell him about Danzo, but-
"I can't." Sai said.
"Why not?!" Naruto snapped.
"Are you taking his side?!" Sakura asked.
"No...that's not it. I literally can't talk about him." he said an opened his mouth to show them his tongue which had a form of black seal.
"A seal of silence." Sasuke said. "Sometimes they're used to make sure a shinobi doesn't spill their country's secrets."
"How do you know of this seal?" Sai asked.
"I killed one of you a long time ago." Sasuke answered and Naruto and Sakura looked at him surprised.
"Sasuke you..." Sakura said.
"It's not what you think." Sasuke said. "He was snooping around Orochimaru's hideout and I caught him. He tried to kill me so I did what anyone would have done. I had no choice, it was me or him."
"This seal is not fun." Sai said. "If I try to talk my body would be paralyzed and I'll be unable to move or talk."
"Danzo's a very cautious man. Why would he do this to his own men?"
"You may not approve of his methods but Danzo really cares about the village. Root has done all of Konoha's dirty deeds and much more to protect this village."
"Then why did he give the order to kill Kano?!" Sakura yelled. Sai gave them a confused look, sure he's heard of Kano and all that she's done especially how Tsunade had planned on bringing her back but he had no idea Danzo had given that order.
"R-really? I didn't know that..." Naruto moved but a sword appeared between him and Sai. She wore a Kumogakure headband and her partner stood next to her with a glare.
"Tell us about Kano, since you know so much about her."
"HADE!" Itachi and Hade turned to see Kakashi appear in front of them, there was worry and anger in his eyes. "Where is he?!"
Hade looked at him for a moment before she remembered who he was talking about.
"Kakashi-"
"I need to see him, now!" the look in his eye reminded her of Sasuke when he was extremely pissed off and tried to hide it. Itachi noticed this and stood between him and Hade.
"Kakashi, if you don't calm down you're not putting a foot in this house." Itachi replied in a calm voice but with a warning behind it. Kakashi closed his eye and when he opened it he looked somewhat relaxed. Itachi stepped aside and Hade let him in, guided him down the hall to the room at the end of the hall. She opened it and Kakashi's eyed widened. There was an IV on his arm, a breathing mask and heavy bandages on Kenta's chest that were a bit damp with blood. Kakashi walked and than collapsed on the chair that was next to the bed.
"How did this happen?"
"Madara..." she said and then took a deep breath trying not to let her voice crack. "And Kano."
Kakashi snapped his head in her direction and he saw unshed tears in her eyes.
"But...she..."
"Kenta was barely conscious when we found him...he had lost a lot of blood and I barely managed to lessen the loss of blood by the time we got there."
"Did he say anything?"
"No..." she said and placed a hand on his shoulder. "He needs a blood transfusion Kakashi."
Kakashi lifted his sleeve and stretched his arm to her.
"Take as much as he needs, I don't care if I have to stay in a hospital bed for weeks. Takes as much blood as possible." Kakashi said. He was tired of failing as a teacher and an uncle, he had promised his sister he would protect her children and that's exactly what he was going to start to do. First he would save his nephew and then he would go after his niece and bring her to her senses even if he had to drag her kicking and screaming back to Konoha. Itachi had brought in a chair that can become a bed and Kakashi laid on it while Hade placed two medical blood bags and began to extract the blood from Kakashi. Once the first bag had been filled she hung it and then inserted the needle on Kenta's arm to start the blood transfusion.
"We'll wait a few hours and then fill another bag, in the mean time get some rest and we'll bring you something to eat." she said and Kakashi gave her a small smile through his mask.
"Thank you Hade."
"Don't mention it." she smiled back and exited the room. She walked past Itachi's bedroom and saw him sitting on his bed with a paper in his hands. She walked to him and the sat next to him and noticed it had been the note she had found when she had first opened his wooden chest.
"Itachi?" he crumbled the note and threw it in the trash can on the other side of the room.
"I'm fine." he said and looked at her with a small smile and then down to her stomach and placed his hand there. "I still can't believe this is happening."
"Imagine my surprise when I found out." she said with a smile as well and placed her hand over his.
"How far along are you?"
"Just over a few weeks I think." she said. "Though we've done it so many times it's not easy to keep track."
Itachi smirked and she laughed, but his smile was soon gone and his eyebrows furrowed in worry.
"You know what this means though don't you?"
"I'm in more danger than before since Madara wants me dead." she nodded. "And I can't exactly go to the war in my condition, at most I'd have to stay as a medic."
"We have to keep this a secret...for now anyway." Itachi said and Hade shook her head.
"Itachi don't you remember what happened the last time we tried to keep a secret?" Hade reminded him and he sighed.
"It didn't go very well did it."
"No, it didn't." she replied and stroked his cheek. "Don't worry about it, we are no longer alone in this...we have friends to help us."
"You have friends." Itachi said.
"Well, you have Sasuke." she replied with a roll of her eyes. "And I'm pretty sure he's going to be happy about this, and so will Souma."
"I will be happy about what?" They turned to see Souma with Manna, Hade smiled and they stood up.
"Manna, Souma...Itachi and I are going to have a baby." Manna's eyes widened and Souma smiled widely.
"I'm going to be an uncle?!" Souma yelled happily.
"Yes, you are." Hade said and Souma hugged her with a shout of joy.
"I'm going to be a grandma..." Manna said with mock disgust. "I'm too young to be a grandma."
Hade laugh as Manna hugged her as well and nodded to Itachi.
"Congratulations you too." she said.
"Thanks." Hade said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to give Kakashi some food so I can do another blood transfusion later."
With that she left them and Manna turned to Itachi.
"Souma go help your Aunt."
"Okay." Souma said and went after Hade. Once they were alone there was a small awkward pause between Manna and Itachi.
"You know what this means don't you?" Manna asked him and he nodded.
"I do. Believe me when I say I won't let anything happen to them." Itachi said.
"You'll have to do more than that," Manna said. "There's no doubt there's a war heading our way, the only way to stop that is to kill Madara once and for all."
"It's not that easy." Itachi said. "Danzo is a problem as well...we have to take care of him first."
"Lets hope that Madara does the job for us on that department then." Manna said. "When are you going to tell Sasuke?"
"As soon as he gets back." Itachi said and Manna could see there was a new glow in his eyes.
"Having a baby is a great blessing you know." Manna said and Itachi looked at her. "When the baby is born and you hold it in your arms you'll be the happiest person in the world. So take good care of Hade, protect her as you've never protected her before."
"I will Manna, I'll never let anything happen to her again. I promise.
"Your meal has arrived." Hade said as she placed the tray of food on a small table.
"Thanks." he replied and began to eat.
"Kakashi...I'm pregnant." she said and had to give Kakashi a glass of water as he began to choke on his food.
"You...are?" he manage to choke out. "How far along are you?"
"Just over a few weeks I think." she said as Kakashi lifted his headband to uncover his sharingan to look at her stomach and sure enough he could see a chakra that was not her own. It was so small and barely visible even to his sharingan but it was there and a small smile spread on his lips.
"Congratulations, I'm sure Itachi is very happy." Kakashi said and Hade nodded. "You'll have to be extremely careful from now on. You have friends to help you, and we'll make sure to protect you with everything we have."
Hade nodded at him and gave him a hug in return.
"Thank you Kakashi."
"Any time." he replied and smiled after she had left but he knew she was even in more danger now. Madara would use this new information against Itachi and would even use them as a threat against him.
Itachi what danger you've placed her in now? Kakashi thought with a sigh.
"We can't tell you anything about Kano." Naruto replied looking at the ninja from thunder. "But I will help you rescue your master. He's a host right?"
"How do you know?"
"I'm a host too, and I know Akatsuki need the host alive. So your master might still be alive."
"Are you seirous? For real?"
"See? I told you Bee-san wouldn't go down so easily."
"We will not tell you about Kano." Sasuke said. "But her brother might."
"Sasuke!" Sakura snapped. "He's been seriously injured we don't even know if he'll survive!"
"I don't care if he's on the brink of death he will tell me where that bitch is!"
"You will do no such thing!" they turn their heads to see Enama standing over a tree branch, glaring down at the two nin.
"Enama!" Naruto said as she landed next to them. "How much did you hear?"
"Everthing."
"Weren't you in Suna with Gaara?" Sakura asked.
"I came hear as soon as I heard what happened, Gaara would have come as well but he got a notice about all the kages having a meeting."
"A meeting?" Naruto asked.
"The rest is classified so I can't disclose it." Enama said. "As for you two thunder nin. I am Enama's teammate, leave them alone."
"Then tell us about Enama." the thunder kunoichi demanded.
"I won't do no such thing." Enama said. "But if you have to deal with Kano...take it out on me."
"Enama!"
"Are you volunteering?" the kunoichi said cracking her knuckles while her partner looked at her incredulously.
"Oh c'mon Karui."
"Shut up Omoi!" Karui snapped and then looked at Enama who had a determined look in her eyes.
"Lets go." Sasuke told the others and they looked at him incredulously.
"But Sasuke-" Sakura began but he cut her off.
"This is what she wants we have to respect her decision." Sasuke replied and nodded at Enama before walking away. Sakura looked at Enama but in the end she followed Sasuke with Sai following while Naruto looked at Enama with a worried look.
"It's okay Naruto I'll be fine." Enama responded but Naruto doubted it. He followed after the others and when they were far away enough Naruto doubled back the way he'd come.
"Naruto what are you doing?" Sasuke called after him.
"I'll go back, I want to make sure Enama's alright." Naruto replied and began to run. Sakura sighed and looked at Sai.
"Sai...maybe you should go and keep Naruto out of trouble." Sai nodded and went after Naruto then Sakura looked at Sasuke.
"I'm going to go to the hospital, see if I'm needed."
"Alright," Sasuke said and watched as she gave him a slight smile and walked away. As he watched her walk away he couldn't help but feel a small tug on his chest and he furrowed his brows in confusion before shaking it off. A few minutes later he walked to the Uchiha compound but he immediately sensed three familiar chakras in one of the abandoned houses and taking out his katana he went inside the small shop that used to belong to his aunt and uncle.
"I can sense your chakra come on out!" A second later his vision was obscured by a mass of red hair and he almost feel to the ground had he not been so close to the wall.
"Sasuke-kun you're alright!"
"Karin. Get. Off. Me." Sasuke growled threateningly and she let go but slowly taking her time.
"You hag can't you see doesn't like being touched by you." Suigetsu responded as he appeared from a doorway followed by Jugo who had a relieved look on his face.
"How did you guys know I was here?" Sasuke asked keeping his mask of indifference though he was slightly relieved they had been alright. "It's been more than two months."
"Well it wasn't easy." Karin said. "Even though I tracked your chakra and when we were close to finding you I simply lost you. Your chakra simply disappeared!"
"Then we heard rumors around that you were in Konoha." Suigetsu said. "But then we knew it would be hard to get in here without being detected so we had to find another way...then we were contacted by Akatsuki."
"You went to get the eight tails didn't you." Sasuke said in matter of fact.
"No, but we did help them gather info and that was it." Jugo said. "I took us a while, then we heard Akatsuki had attacked the village and we knew this would have been the only opportunity to rescue you."
"I don't need to be rescued." Sasuke said. "This is my home."
"We thought you'd have other plans after killing Itachi-"
"I didn't kill him."
"What?!" Suigetsu yelled. "But Sasuke-"
"I found out the truth of why he killed my clan, they had planned a coup and he was forced by Danzo and the elders. My new goal is to make them pay for that, but now it's not the time yet." Sasuke said.
"You made up with your team didn't you?" Jugo said and Sasuke nodded. "So we are useless now."
"Jugo." Jugo looked at Sasuke.
"I promised you I would help you and I still plan to keep that promise." Sasuke. "But right now it's a bit dangerous for you to stay here. The Fifth Hokage is in a coma and Danzo is Hokage until she wakes, if she wakes up. You three need to hide because if Danzo finds out you were experiments of Orochimaru he will either kill you or make you do his bidding."
"Then I guess we should hide them don't you think Sasuke?" the all turned sharply and saw Itachi and Hade leaning against the front door. Suigetsu raised Zabuza's sword and Jugo powered up with his curse mark but Sasuke raised his hand and they calmed down.
"I'm guessing they were your replacement for team seven when you were rouge correct?" Itachi asked.
"Better not let Naruto and Sakura know, that won't sit well with them." Hade added as she looked them over then he eyes landed on Jugo.
"You are the original host of the curse mark aren't you?"
"How did you know?"
"I can sense the power of the curse mark, and the blood lust." she walked up to him and looked at him like a curious child with a new toy.
"Hade don't." Itachi said already reading her mind.
"I'm just curious-"
"No." he replied and she pouted.
"You want to see the damage I can do." Jugo said while had gave him a sympathetic smile.
"I'm sorry force of habit from a past trouble maker and medic-nin."
"I do not mind being subjected to test, perhaps you will be able to lift this hateful curse from me. Orochimaru only used me to create others like me and I do not wish for it to happen again."
"I will try to help you in anyway I can." Hade said with a smile while Itachi sighed.
"Now what to do with you two." Itachi motioned for Karin and Suigetsu.
"Karin is an expert chakra tracker." Sasuke said. "And she has special abilities by being able to transfer her chakra to others, similar to medical jutsu."
Karin blushed a bit by this and stared at Sasuke with adoration, something that didn't escaped Itachi or Hade.
"Suigetsu..." Sasuke began and looked at Suigetsu who rolled his eyes before letting himself melt and form again.
"What the-"
"My body is water." Suigetsu said. "I can turn myself into a liquid form and even a punch can't break any bones and I can't get stabbed or cut into pieces."
"Interesting." Itachi said and now it was Hade's turn to stop Itachi.
"Don't even think about it Uchiha. Now's not the time." Itachi couldn't help but give her a smirk which Sasuke looked at with a raised eyebrow since he had never seen Itachi with that expression.
"So what happens now?" Sasuke asks.
"We take them to the house next to ours, I cleaned that house not to long ago just in case." Hade said.
"In case of what?" Itachi asked.
"In case we needed more privacy." she said with a wink and walked out while the others looked at her with a shocked expression and followed after her.
Here's another long chapter. :) I just felt like ending it there so I hope you enjoyed it.