Note: And, thus Kana's, journey concludes.

Laying in his bed, Neji was fast asleep, knocked out by the last of the sedatives he had reluctantly taken to get through the worst of his chakra poisoning with little discomfort. Lady Tsunade told him that he wouldn't be able to return to the battlefield any time soon due to both the poisoning and the injuries he had received during his torture sessions so, once he was discharged from the hospital, he spent much of his time in the Hyuga manor to handle the affairs of the family in Hiashi's absence.

Next to him was Yuki, who seemed to have assigned herself as his personal assistant when she wasn't following her master around – or his bodyguard, sometimes Kana honestly couldn't tell. Her hitai ate was tied around her head like a bandana with the metal plate facing forward in a way that, at times, reminded Kana of Hayate, especially with the way her hair was cut to her chin and her bangs would sometimes bunch to the center of her forehead when she trained exceptionally hard.

When Kana entered the room, Yuki looked up from the textbook in her lap and beamed, setting it aside on the nightstand so she could rise from the chair she had pulled up to Neji's bed.

"Master," she greeted happily, "Training?"

Kana looked down at her rather unprofessional appearance, noting the dirt that was caked into her uniform and exposed flesh. With Naruto and Sakura deployed on a mission, and Guy working on an assignment of his own, Kakashi had shown up on her doorstep insisting that they race around the village and spar; he laid into Kana so hard that she found herself opening five gates and almost having to use her reserve seal.

In other words, it was like any other training session.

She nodded and beckoned for Yuki to follow her out into the hallway, "Your team is looking for you. It's time for you to go on a mission."

The child frowned, 'I don't want to go on a mission.'

"You had the option to not go into the service, kid," Kana shut the door behind them and started down the familiar corridor, "You knew that you would have to take missions, eventually."

'I hoped they would be with you.'

It was her turn to frown, "A brand-new genin isn't going to be deployed on an S-ranked assignment –"

"I can do it!" Yuki exclaimed, the words coming off somewhat clumsily as she struggled to enunciate.

Kana sighed and stopped, dropping down into a crouch so that they were eye to eye. Even without the use of their link she could see and feel the stress emanating off of her student like an aura, and it broke her heart a little to see her this upset over a brief separation.

"Look, it's not gonna be that long," she explained, reaching out for her waist, "C-ranked escort missions like this usually only take a week or so, and you'll be so busy that you won't have time to be bothered over who your teammates are, or aren't."

Yuki stepped into her embrace and slipped her arms around her shoulders, 'Can't you just come with us?' she buried her face in Kana's neck, 'I don't want to go anywhere without you.'

The sensation of her heart feeling overfull made her chest ache in a bittersweet way, and Kana locked her arms tight around the child so she could lift her up as she stood, "I know, baby, but I have to take care of things here."

Setting up a training regime for Root – or, well, Chubu, as it was now called - was a lot more difficult than she had initially anticipated, and it was taking up most of the time she would like to be spending with her family.

Family…

Nine years ago, if you had told Kana that she would have any semblance of a proper family, she would have probably decked that person as hard as she could to remind you that it isn't necessarily a smart idea to tease a member of Anbu over something that sensitive.

As she stepped out into the entry way, her heart lifted at the sight of Sai leaning against a wall in wait.

"Are we all set?" he nodded at the child that was still clinging to Kana's front.

"How long are you back for?" Kana asked as they made their way out of the estate.

Sai thought for a moment, "Team Kakashi returns to the front lines in eight days, if I am not mistaken."

The sweetness from earlier dulled to a more somber placated feeling. If it were up to Kana she would be out there, too, with her brothers and sisters, and her most precious friends, fighting against the war that she helped start. She would be on the front lines fighting against the reincarnated shinobi and White Zetsu, against Obito and Kabuto. And Sasuke…

Kana tightened the arms she had around Yuki as if doing so would put a block to the pang of regret that burned hotly in her chest. She wouldn't ever dare to play god, but what she wouldn't do to go back and stop herself from making all of those mistakes, from giving up on Konoha, from urging Sasuke to join Obito in his cause…

But Commander Hiketsu was right – her village needed her. Konohagakure needed her here, at home, now, to protect it from invaders that were sure to come in their state of weakness. Focusing on her guilt would distract her from what mattered most right now.

A gentle hand at the small of her back pulled Kana out of her musings, and she looked up to meet Sai's gaze. When he saw her look of confusion, his tender expression faltered and he withdrew his hand to rub the back of his head nervously.

"Ah, I apologize… I saw that, when you were upset, Neji would do that in a comforting gesture…" Sai trailed off, cheeks flushing a little.

Kana smiled and shifted Yuki's weight so she could reach out to entwine their fingers. She said nothing, but it seemed to be enough for Sai to ease up as they made their way towards the front of the village. Because he was off duty Sai wasn't wearing his gloves with his Shimi tunic, so Kana could see the discolored edges of his fingertips where old calluses resided. They were almost exactly like the pattern of calluses on her own hands, different only in the lack of scarring, and she felt a twinge of satisfaction.

He really was her baby brother, wasn't he?

They walked like that for the next forty-five minutes. Not much was said, though that was probably because they didn't need to exchange any words – they never did, really. Much of their time alone together in the past was spent in a comfortable silence as they simply enjoyed one another's company, with that silence only being broken every now and then for meaningless talk, usually Sai asking about peoples' normalcy or turn of phrase.

Eventually, though, they began to approach the village entrance where Yuki's team would be waiting, and Kana found herself reluctantly setting her down on her own feet.

"Come on, this isn't how a shinobi acts when they're about to go on a mission," she said as sternly as she could manage through the growing lump in her throat, "Shinobi don't cling to their mothers like infants."

It was a slip of the tongue, a slip that caught both of their attentions. Sai blinked in surprise as Yuki's eyes flashed, pulling her face out of where it was buried into Kana's clothed belly to peer up at her curiously.

Kana wasn't about to let her get distracted, "Pull up your mask and put on your goggles. You don't get to be a little kid, anymore."

Ever the obedient student, Yuki nodded and did as she was instructed, hiding her swirling silver eyes behind the tinted goggles that her master had given her, and pulling her black cloth mask up over her nose before sliding the too-big fox-shaped Anbu mask to hide the rest of her face.

"Remember to eat rations and drink enough water, and always listen to everything Ko says," she continued, hearing her voice being to waver, "Your sensei is your leader. Give him the same respect you would give me, but don't argue. I'll be speaking with him when he gets back to hear how you did."

With a quiet sniff that was muffled by her mask, Kana took her by the shoulders and spun her around to push her back towards the busy road, "Go. You've made them wait long enough."

Sai smiled and waved, "Good luck."

A moment passed where Yuki seemed to hesitate, as if she was still unsure of what to do. Then, she turned around with a wave that mirrored Sai's, with words passing through her lips that were nearly lost in the noise of the bustling crowd.

Nearly.

For the second time that day Kana's heart felt both overfull and pained as she watched the tiny girl weave her way through the sea of people in the direction of the village gates. She clutched her chest with one hand, twisting the fabric that covered it, and squeezed her brother's hand with the other when he slipped his fingers over her gloved palm.

"I love you, too, baby."

Working in an office was not something that Kana believed she would ever get used to.

She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, which was easier said than done with her mask on. Paperwork was fine on its own, it wasn't anything new to the shinobi, but she hated that all of her work needed to be done in the office that she had been assigned to. Mostly, Kana just didn't like being forced to sit in one spot for too long.

Signing the mission report, she sealed the file and set it on top of the growing stack in her out box - not like there was anyone that would be emptying it for her. Jeeze. Kana knew that this was an important job, but would her life really be nothing but this from now on? Filling out paperwork and reviewing mission reports on the floor below the Hokage's office?

And then there was the clan to manage…

"You're sure you want to do this?" Guy asked as if reading her thoughts, handing over another scroll that needed to be reviewed.

Kana frowned, "I don't want to do it, but I need to accept responsibility."

Either because they were scared into submission, or because they actually felt guilty for what they had done, Kana found out upon returning with Neji that the Shimi clan had spared what members they could, in conjunction with the Hyugas, to create a small number of teams to find and invite kekkei tota users home from their undeserved exile between war-related assignments. Neji, being the loving brother as he was, volunteered for this small division so Kana could have more than just Yuki around to relate to.

This was shortly before she found his team members' corpses in the forest and tracked their attackers to where their temporary base was located in an abandoned bunker from the third war.

Of course, it couldn't be as simple as just the clan wanting to invite their exiled members home.

Now she was being asked to become the head of the clan, that way the Kanas could rest assured that this wasn't some sort of trap, or an attempt at enslavement. Although it meant that she would have to move into the Shimi manor and it would be a massive pain in the ass, Kana could see how it would make sense – she was the one that insisted on reform, after all.

That didn't make it any less annoying as shit. How was someone with no large-scale leadership experience supposed to take charge of an entire Anbu division and a clan that had enough problems to make a daimyo's head spin?

"What about Raido?"

Mismatched eyes flitted up from the mission request, "What about him?"

Guy frowned, "Is he okay with this?"

She looked back down at the scroll, "He understands."

"Kana…"

"Dad, I'm not selfish," Kana reached into her desk to grab a specially marked file before handing it over to the jonin, "I really did take him into consideration."

The sounds of paper rustling could be heard in the silent office as he peeled away the flimsy plastic seal to open up the manila folder. Even with her eyes locked on the assignment that she would probably assign to Tatsuma, Kana knew that Guy was staring wide-eyed at the special request form, his thick eyebrows raised high enough to be hidden behind his glossy bowl cut.

"This is…" his smile rang in his voice as he spoke, "You're getting married?!"

"You are to take command of what remains of Root," Hiketsu stepped back and fished around in his hip pouch for something, "You know these men, you can train them to fight against the Akatsuki."

"You want them to act as Konoha's line of defense."

The Commander nodded slowly, handing over an unmarked scroll, "The details are within this scroll."

She tucked it into the pouch strapped to her leg to read later, mismatched eyes never leaving his masked face.

"There's something else, isn't there..?"

The haunted look in his eyes hardened.

"There is."

Kana steeled herself.

"You are to utilize the abilities of your Rinnegans to recreate the Six Paths system that Nagato used to destroy the village," he explained grimly, "Whatever bodies used are up to your discretion so long as you do not desecrate the graves of any former Kage, and that their existence remains a secret to anyone but you and myself."

"A secret guard…" her frown deepened, "Not even Lady Tsunade..?"

Hiketsu stiffly shook his head, "The Kage plan to fight on the front lines once Obito Uchiha joins the battle, and we have confirmed reports of him wielding the Rinnegan in one eye. No one but us can know about this."

Or else they would risk the secret being revealed through his own Path.

"I have a demand."

Hiketsu's eyes widened from behind his mask, only just so, but Kana knew that it was more out of genuine surprise than anything else. There had never been a moment when she requested something from him, when she didn't just wordlessly accept his orders.

"You're right, Commander, I've never had any sort of freedom," her voice wavered slightly as she spoke, understanding that this was a serious line to cross, "Konoha never allowed me to have a childhood, or a life of my own. It barely allowed me to have friends – friends that were always taken away from me…" The memory of Itachi on the night he fled the village, and Genma's confession in the forest, made her fists clench, "Men I loved were killed by Leaf shinobi…" Kana fought against the burn in her eyes when Shisui's and Kisame's faces flashed across her vision, "I won't let it take anything else away from me."

The Anbu Commander was silent, though something in his demeanor shifted.

"I'll take the position, and I'll leave to retrieve bodies tonight, but you have to let me marry Raido and adopt Yuki. I refuse to take no for an answer."

For the first time in the years they had known each other, Hiketsu chuckled.

"Is that all?"

The lieutenant commander rolled her eyes, though she hid a smile behind her mask as she pulled out a blank scroll and popped the cap off of her pen, "It's just a chit, sensei. It still has to be submitted for Lady Fifth's approval." Which Kana wouldn't be requesting until after the war.

Guy was practically glowing when he handed the file back, "Still, baby! I am so very happy for you two. This is a beautiful thing that should be celebrated! When did he propose?"

Kana lifted a slender eyebrow, "Who said anything about proposing?"

Understandably, Guy looked confused, "You filled out a chit that your commander signed off on. Did Raido not propose marriage to you?"

"Dad, a soldier who proposes in the middle of a war isn't someone that should be proposing."

He blinked.

"It's just…" Kana bit her lip and paused in the middle of copying the scroll's contents, "We all know what kind of life he wants. He wants marriage, and children, and a house to call his own, and…" she pulled her Anbu mask to the side to reintroduce her face to something other than warm, stuffy air, "He deserves that."

Instead of the expected nod of understanding, Guy's cheery demeanor quickly morphed into an expression that wasn't too far from when he saw Lee rebreak one of his legs after his first Chunin Exam.

"You are a strong, grown woman, and I have no right to question your motives after everything that has happened in recent years," he said slowly, "But, Kana... Is this a path you truly wish to take?"

Like earlier, the kunoichi immediately opened her mouth to respond with "Of course," but quickly stopped herself. Kana's eyes left her father's to fall to her desk, which was covered in scrolls and folders and stacks of paper held together by clips. Years ago, this was exactly what she had wanted; she wanted to be in a leadership position in Anbu with Raido by her side and her friends at her back. Now...

"It is expected of me," Kana finally answered after several seconds ticked by, "I told you that I must accept responsibility."

Through his dark irises, she could have sworn that she saw some of Guy's heart break when he murmured, "This is not the life you yearn for." It wasn't a question.

Kana thought back to the night she and Kisame shared useless facts about each other in the bathroom of their shared hotel room, about how she actually imagined what their children would look like. For a moment, she allowed herself to remember when, for that brief time in bed, they planned to run away from the lives they led.

When did she ever fantasize about a forever with Raido? Being with him, yes, but it was always in a present tense…

"I love him," she whispered.

She did. Kana truly, deeply, honestly loved Raido. He was warm and kind and strong, and any woman would be so lucky to have him by her side. But... Being with him was easy. It was not difficult to love and appreciate someone that was nothing but accommodating and cared with every fiber of his beautiful being.

Learning to love someone that challenged you, however... That was exciting. It was an adventure. It wasn't easy, fighting was all too common, but it kept you on your toes in a way that made life a little brighter.

"I have been blessed with a man that is willing to give me everything he has," Kana cleared her throat and continued to write out Tatsuma's orders, "It is only fair that I reciprocate some of that kindness."

Guy seemed to deflate in his chair in a manner that left him looking small and disappointed, and it took him a handful of moments to gather his thoughts. Tapping floated up from her pen striking paper to fill the empty air between them, which grew heavier with each passing minute.

"You will never change, will you?"

A cloud of black ink pooled beneath Kana's pen when she paused for a second time, looking up in confusion. Guy's eyes were focused on the floor, his large hands balled into tight fists that trembled slightly over his green-covered knees.

"Instead of embracing your own individual dreams, you are allowing yourself to put aside your own wants and needs for the good of others," Guy explained in a voice that was much too quiet for his normally boisterous persona, "You refuse to live any life other than that of a model shinobi, who leads and proves herself as a protector."

"Would you prefer I go back to hating shinobi?" Kana's eyes narrowed, "You want me to scratch out the Leaf symbol on my headband and go rogue?"

Guy suddenly leaped up from his chair to meet her gaze with a familiar intensity in his eyes that burned hotly, "I want you to, for once, do what you want! Did nothing I said that night about Kotetsu and conforming to others' wants stick with you -"

"Things were different then!" Kana sprang out of her seat to stand as tall as she could manage, which wasn't saying much next to a man who had an entire foot on her.

"Were they so different? You were healing from an unimaginable loss, you were only just beginning to remember that your happiness and youth were only lying dormant, instead of being dead and rotten -"

"You were the one that told me that it's not possible to always do what we want, dad," Kana snapped, "But you said as long as I believe in something, and persevere, that's what matters! You taught me to make shit work!"

The muscles in Guy's jaw and neck flexed, "I also taught you that giving up on your future and dreams is what leads to one's ultimate suffering," he reminded her sternly.

A pressure built behind Kana's eyes, and she had to fiercely bite her lip to keep her composure from slipping.

"I didn't give up on the future I wanted," she ground out, "He died."

Guy looked as if he had just been punched in the gut, and he fell silent, like the words had been physically knocked out of him.

"You told Lee and I that the lotus of Konoha blooms twice. That everyone has a second chance to forge their own destiny," Kana continued without waiting for a response, "I'm sorry that I'm not perfect, like Lee, but this is my second chance at being the person I want to be. I have to be the person that people need me to be..."

She had to assume the responsibilities that she had been dealt with, so others could be who they wanted to be.

"I would have done anything to live the life I imagined I could have had," Kana whispered, a lump forming in her throat, "But I can't have it, so this is what I choose."

Guy's voice was thick and heavy, as if it were lined in lead, "If Kisame were alive…"

The lump grew large enough for her to feel like she would choke to death on it. Kana nodded slowly and watched her father's face twist as the weight of Kisame's death finally, truly, sunk in.

"Yeah."

It would mean breaking the promise she made to Raido in the breezeway of his apartment, but it would have been the first thing she had ever done for herself, and her own happiness.

Guy's eyes filled, though no tears fell.

A knock at the door snapped them out of their shared headspace. Neither of them relaxed, they continued to stare stiffly at one another, but the knock was a welcomed excuse for this conversation to be considered over.

"Mistress Kana," her old caretaker, Rei, called through the door, "A visitor has arrived to the manor for you."

Kana pulled her mask back over her face before smoothing her flak jacket out, eyes still trained on the spandex-clad jonin.

"Don't let this undermine what I have with Raido, dad," she murmured, "Just because it's not..." Kana sighed, "I do love him. I need him in my life - Yuki, too. She needs someone that's warm and grounded and... Not like me. That's why I requested a chit from my commander."

For the first time in her life, she actually found herself thanking her therapist for his advice; Kana made the mental note to bring that up in her next session with Inoichi.

Guy hesitated only a moment before leaving the room to make way for a familiar grey-haired bounty hunter with white, glowing eyes which were hidden by tinted goggles. The door shut behind him with a soft click, and neither of them said anything until long after the two sets of footsteps faded into silence.

Kyosuke was the one to speak first.

"Your brother..."

"Is resting at home," Kana sat back down in her chair and rolled up the scroll to protect its contents, "You are alone?"

He shrugged, "Sorta. Kyrie is at the compound."

One left to scout the location while the other gathers intel from a direct source. Smart.

"You said that we can live here?" Kyosuke shifted his weight from one foot to the other, looking more than just uncomfortable as he spoke, "What do you want from us?"

Kana shook her head and leaned back, crossing her arms over her chest, "I don't want anything from you."

His eyebrows drew in suspiciously, "Everyone wants something," he responded coolly.

"I want my family home."

Behind his goggles, Kyosuke's eyes flashed. His lips flattened into a tight white line as his shoulders stiffened. In his discomfort Kana could see that he didn't trust her - for good reason, she suspected - but there was still a part of him that wanted to believe what she was saying, that he and his sister could finally entrust someone other than themselves.

In a sense, it wasn't too different from how Kana treated people.

Later, she would laugh about how brooding and distrust ran in the family.

Gesturing at the chair in front of her desk, she sighed and toyed with the end of her braid.

"Take a seat, Kyosuke. I am going to tell you a very long story."

Six days later...

"Is this something I should get used to?"

Kana, and the seven other individuals in Raido's living room, looked up from the coffee table that was covered in sheets of paper that were stapled together in groups of three, "Welcome home."

The tokujo smiled warmly as he nodded silent hellos to the visitors, "A paperwork party?" he joked.

Lifting one of the packets, Kana wiggled the pen that was held between her teeth, "Applications for Chubu."

"Several of those in the standard Anbu force have begun requesting a transfer to Kana's division upon being informed that she was in charge," Neji explained from where he was stretched out on the couch, injured leg propped up on pillows that had been retrieved from Raido's bed.

"Most of which appear to be from the company that she commanded before her transfer to Root," Sai added disinterestedly, more interested in the letter of recommendation of a chunin-ranked Anbu member.

Neji frowned, "Conscription much more suitable terminology for Danzo's –"

"Doesn't matter," Kana hummed before he could pique too many of the others' curiosity, dropping the packet into the rejection pile, "Raido, these are the shinobi I have selected as my captains."

Part of the perk of becoming the head of Root was being able to hand-pick every one of the captains that would lead one hundred man companies in the division, instead of having to deal with grandfathered leaders.

Having already met Imai, Saeko and Haru in the past, Raido shared an awkwardly professional greeting with Tatsuma and Torune. To the best of Kana's knowledge, they had only seen each other in passing when Raido still resented Root and its members.

"So, to answer my question, yes," he joked. Raido navigated around the sofa to drop down to the floor to sit next to Kana, "Do you need help?"

Haru slid the final stack of applications so that they were sitting in front of the tokujo, then handed him a pen, "Here ya go, loverboy."

The very corner of Torune's lips twitched upwards into a subtle grin. "We are sorting out those who seem have a wish to avoid the front lines, and those who are deemed too important to remove from a general's command."

Raido looked lost, "Uh…"

"Alright, I'll handle the rest of these, you just get started on dinner," Kana kissed his shoulder, too lazy to put forth the effort of stretching to reach his cheek.

Raido looked over his shoulder towards the kitchen, then back, "Uhhhh…."

"Alright, we'll go out," she shooed him away, "I've been wanting barbecue, anyways."

Two hours and a number of phone calls later, half of the tables at Yakiniku Q2 were pushed together for a party that took up the majority of the restaurant's free floor space. Friendly conversation filled the air in a way that made the atmosphere light and cheerful, a feeling that they were all long overdue for.

Anbu, both standard and Chubu, mingled with chunin and jonin of varying ranks. Lee prattled off about training to Imai and Haru, who looked thoroughly entertained by the teenager's enthusiasm for his workout regimen. Kakashi had an arm looped around Genma's shoulders – a wordless gesture that shocked all of them in a strangely pleasant way – as he told a story to Izumo and Tenten about a mission that went wrong in the most comical way possible that led to him having to pretend to sleep with Guy to avoid being betrothed to the current Mizukage. While his pink-haired student, Kana was pretty sure her name was Sakura, bickered about something with her blonde-haired friend and Naruto, Torune and Tatsuma were catching up with Shino, and Kurenai was showing Chozo Akimichi's kid how to hold her infant daughter.

Every half hour or so there seemed to be another small group of people that would arrive, and they would push up another chair and order a new round of drinks. It wasn't long before the entire group, save a few, was happily tipsy as they leisurely ate dinner, sometimes taking bites off of each others' plates, and shared an amicable mood.

The only thing that could possibly made this evening better was if –

A familiar chakra signature entered Yakiniku Q2, and Kana twisted around in her seat fast enough to almost give herself whiplash.

A pretty waitress greeted Yuki when she slid open the paper door behind her, but she waved her hand in dismissal when offered a table, pointing to the large cluster of tables that was the direct source for the majority of the room's noise. She darted out of the entry way, arms out.

"Mama!"

Genma chuckled as he brought a beer to his lips, "Would ya look at that, the kid talks."

"Man, look at that hair!" Naruto exclaimed with a mouth full of – holy shit the kid was actually eating something other than ramen, "What, did you just walk in on Sai when he was-"

Ino's head whipped around to glare at him, "Naruto, I swear if you finish that sentence I will hit you so hard that Billboard's monster strength won't even begin to compare!"

Chopsticks twitched in Sakura's hands at the remark and a vein bulged in her forehead, "The hell did you just say, Pig?!"

The girls began lobbing insults at each other before grinning and giggling sheepishly, eliciting a less than gentlemanly remark from Shikamaru as he brought a small cup of sake to his lips.

Of course, Kana ignored all of them. She scooped the child up in her arms, pulling her into her lap, and pressed a kiss to her cheek, "You're back early."

Yuki nodded and looped her arms around her neck as her legs swung back and forth, "Ko-sensei said we did good."

"Of course you did!" Guy beamed proudly, "One should expect nothing less from someone so full of youth that was trained by such a powerful –"

"Guy, I'm not drunk enough for you just yet," Kakashi teased.

After retrieving a pair of metal chopsticks from the cup in the center of their table, Raido plucked a few bites of food from Genma's and Kotetsu's plates to create a sort of potluck plate for Yuki, "Here, you're probably hungry."

The genin nodded happily.

"So, what happened?" Genma asked around a mouthful of pickled radish and grilled beef, "You get in a fight?"

Unable to retell everything with her current speech skills, Yuki activated her Ishikigan and locked eyes with Genma to relay the story.

"Hey, hey! Don't go holding out on us by using your weird mind reading tricks!" Naruto exclaimed when he recognized the same pattern he saw in the forest, eliciting a rather violent punch from Sakura as she shushed him.

"Use your words," Kana agreed, rubbing her arm gently, "You can do it."

Yuki looked doubtful, but relented. The next few minutes were spent with her explaining what details of her mission she could, having to stop and carefully think out her words and force herself to enunciate properly every now and then. Apparently there was a rather intense battle that went far above the mission's rank, but she fought well enough to take out their attackers while her teammates ducked for cover with their injured sensei. Kakashi noted how that wasn't too different from the first mission he took Team 7 on, where they learned too late that the bridge builder they were escorting was actually being hunted down by rogue shinobi.

Pride swelled in Kana's chest with each passing moment. It quickly overtook the subdued anxiety that she felt towards Yuki being on a mission without her, something that she didn't even realize she was feeling until the knot in the pit of her stomach loosened.

She glanced up at Guy, who was watching the scene with a quiet fondness. Feeling her gaze on him, he looked up and offered a slow, tender smile. The rough calluses on his palm scratched a little on her own scarred and beaten knuckles when he slid his hand over the corner of the table to hold hers. The gentle squeeze he gave wasn't unlike the hugs Guy would provide when she was little, and she squeezed back.

Lee looked positively enthralled with Yuki's story, "I cannot imagine how frightening it must have been to fend off an entire team of rogue hunter-nin!"

Sai nodded in agreement, "It most certainly sounds like an intense scenario to find oneself in, especially for your fist mission."

Silver-white hair swished back and forth when Yuki shook her head, "I was trained well. I don't need to be scared."

Damn it all if Kana didn't almost break down into tears on the spot at that.

Sniffing a bit, she looked up at Raido, who was listening to Yuki explain a jutsu she had used with an amused look on his face. One of his hands was wrapped around hers, almost enveloping it completely; Raido's thumb stroked the soft underside of her wrist idly, as gentle as the way he watched Yuki smile and bounce as her story reached the part where she and her teammate had to infiltrate the enemy camp for medical supplies.

It wasn't too unlike the way Kana would sit at the dinner table and share hers and Shisui's stories when she was still a child, feeling the warm weight of her father's hand holding hers when she lamented over Itachi not being on their team after they passed the Chunin Exams.

Something so overwhelming that Kana was nearly knocked flat on her back by it washed over her, and she had to quietly excuse herself to step outside. It was only when the door shut behind her that she allowed the first few tears to spill over, trailing down her pale cheeks at an unhurried pace before dripping into the collar of her shirt.

She loved her. Kana loved her so much – so much so that she couldn't possibly understand how she had any room left for anyone else.

But she did. She loved Neji and Sai, and she loved Lee, and Tenten, and Kana loved them so much and was so proud of everything they had accomplished as they grew up. She was so happy to be home and here and with them, with her family.

Her family.

The door to the restaurant slid open, and Kana turned around in time to watch Raido slip through. His eyes were warm and understanding as he closed the short distance between them with a few strides of his long legs, reaching out to wrap his arms around her narrow shoulders.

"I know," he murmured into her hair, "You don't have to explain."

It wasn't what she initially wanted, no. A pretty picket-fence life with a child and a husband wasn't the life that Kana envisioned for herself.

But, as she slipped her own arms around Raido's waist and buried her face into his chest, inhaling that familiar scent of wood and musk, she realized that it didn't mean she wanted this any less. It didn't mean Kana wanted to leave, or that she didn't look forward to the road that had been set in front of her feet.

Being home meant that Kana could look forward to watching her brothers continue to grow up. She could make up for the time she had lost with Sai. Yuki could grow up with friends, and learn how to be normal. Kana could help bring her other clan members back home to the village and rebuild the inner workings of the Shimis to ensure that nothing like this could ever happen again. She could help train the ones that never learned how to use their abilities.

It meant that she could live a life with a man that loved her so much that he waited years for her to come to him, and waited even longer for her to return.

A small, warm hand slipped over her hip, and the two broke apart to look down at Yuki, who was leaning into Kana's body, her cheek nestled into the side of her bosom, with her arms wrapped around their waists.

Raido grinned and dropped one arm down to wrap it around the child's shoulders. Kana mirrored his movement, pulling her tight.

Like Raido, Neji and Sai didn't ask any questions when they stepped out to check on them. Neji leaned in for a soft kiss on the cheek before circling Kana's waist with his slender arms from behind. With a quiet smile, Sai put one hand on Yuki's back, the other coming up to rest between Neji's shoulder blades, and he touched his forehead to Kana's.

When Guy exited the building, he said nothing. He only patted Raido's shoulder and nodded at Lee and Tenten when they joined the embrace.

Izumo and Kotetsu soon followed, though they stood a few feet away, their arms holding each others' waists, next to Genma and Kakashi.

In that moment, Kana was certain that there was no one else on this planet that felt as loved as she did in that moment, and loved as much as she did.

With her family in her arms and her most precious friends by her side, she knew without a doubt that this was a life worth living. It was one worth pursuing and cherishing. It was worth longing for.

It was everything she had ever wanted.

In that moment, with fond tears staining her cheeks, with her brothers holding her, with her child in her arms, with the man she loved pressing tender kisses to her hair, Kana realized that for the first time in her long, painful, trying life…

She had a family.

She was experiencing true happiness.

And she wouldn't give this up for the world.