Hey! Sorry it's taken SO long to update... I hope you enjoy chapter 11, and if you do, please review! :D There's a sweet convo with Sai in this chapter (I adore Sai, so had to make him important... hope you agree!) Thank you.

Chapter Eleven- The Outsider

When Kana forced open her eyes, it was so bright that she was convinced for a moment that she had gone blind. Where she was currently lying was mystery, but it wasn't as if, in her current state, she cared. The air around her was warm and comfortable, and it smelled of flowers mixed with medicine. Her head was on something soft and white, and when she looked upwards, the glare was even more blinding.

Her mind was still in a daze, so she lay unmoving for a while, listening to the general hubbub in the distance; children laughing and shouting far away, and on the other side of a door, people conversing. She heard the faint clinks of trolleys and vials being arranged. Birds sang outside and their chatter, laced in with all else that Kana could hear, made the start to her day very noisy.

When the door in front of her opened, and a person walked in, she opened her eyes some more and blinked away the spots. She looked up into a single black eye on a face covered with a mask. His silver hair was fought back with a Leaf forehead protector and he was holding a book.

"Kakashi-" she began, but he held up a hand to stop her.

"I didn't expect you to wake up so quickly, Kana. It's only been a few hours since you got here. The higher-ups have been running around in a panic over how to approach the situation."

She nodded. She wasn't in a particularly talkative mood, as her mind was almost fully focused on trying to figure out what had happened. A continuous buzz muffled any access to information in her brain. She thought back… she passed out when she saw Kakashi at the gates, having run from… She cast the Phoenix flower jutsu for…

"Itachi!" she burst out, and threw off the covers. Kakashi held her back from escaping with considerable difficulty. "Let me go, you idiot!"

"You need to rest for a while. You were in a pretty bad way when you got here."

"But Itachi's… he's…"

"Kana," he said, sitting her back down, "Why did you come back here? Moreover, why did you come back here like this?"

"Sasuke Uchiha, Itachi's brother- you know him, right?" Kakashi nodded. "They fought, and Itachi… he died."

"Sasuke killed Itachi? Are you serious?"

"No!" she said angrily. "Itachi would never be killed by scum like him! He just… died."

"Whatever you say, little Kana." He waved a hand in dismissal.

"Call me little again, and I will crush you."

"Sure, sure…"

"I am not in the mood, Kakashi Hatake! Geez, I'm out of here. I can't stand being locked up like this."

Kana bit back more tears and dodged Kakashi, advancing for the window. She smashed the glass with her fist, sending broken pieces ricocheting across the room. This distraction was a least sufficient enough to let her escape. Jumping from the second floor was simple enough, so after that, she was running through the Leaf village in her torn-up clothes as fast as her tired legs would allow.

She was sure that, by now, if Kakashi had really wanted to stop her, he would have at least tried to chase after her. Instead, she was being allowed to roam free. Well, that suited her. Anything to distract her from the death of the person she valued. She didn't want to think of Itachi's body, his bloody, motionless, smiling corpse. Not of cradling that lifeless body for a long time, knowing that she was truly alone now. Not of him felled and dying from illness, forcing himself to fight his younger brother who was fixated on revenge. The Itachi she respected and valued was quiet, taciturn and undoubtedly wise. He was the most honest liar anyone could know, and he protected what he loved with silent determination. Yes, that was what she wanted to remember. His legacy, rather than his death, was what was important here.

She considered this as she sat on a wall in a decidedly quiet corner of the village, surrounded only by the cobble path in front of her and the trees behind. She looked up in the sky and saw a cloud curiously shaped like a bird. More specifically, a crow. She swallowed and clenched her fists. So he was still watching over her, right now. Later on, this would have been comforting to know, but right now it just confirmed his death.

"Am I really at home here?" she mumbled to herself. "I've spent my whole life as someone who doesn't quite fit in… Why would the Leaf be any different? I like it here, but…"

But she was so different from them. She hadn't been born or raised there, and now she was barging in, trying to prove her worth and bargain her way into their ranks. She predicted that she would be met with at least a moderate level of hostility from the ninja; the general public weren't to know any better, unless any of them remembered her being dragged in for questioning. The ninja would never accept her, especially since Itachi was her Akatsuki partner…

"I've never seen you before."

Kana almost fell backwards off the wall. She swivelled round and jumped off, to find a young man sat against it, a sketchpad propped on his legs. She eyed him suspiciously for a moment as he stared back with a completely blank expression. His face was sheet white and she had never seen hair as inky black as his; It was like he himself was a sketchpad. His face was familiar somehow, but the memory of his identity escaped her.

"Who the hell are you?" she asked, a little ruffled at being scared so easily.

"Good morning. My name is Sai," he said pleasantly, holding out his hand. Kana shook it hesitantly.

"What are you doing sat against a wall?"

"Is it not obvious?"

"I guess so."

"Don't you remember me? I was one of the people who detained you after we defeated Hidan and Kakuzu of the Akatsuki. I held you in the ink handcuffs back to the village."

She clapped her hands together. "Oh, yeah! You didn't really talk much, so I guess it took something like you telling me to jog my memory."

"Sorry," he said meekly. Kana couldn't help but feel a tiny pang of guilt where before there would have been disdain.

"It's not your fault I didn't remember you, you idiot!" she laughed in spite of herself. "So you draw casually as well as for your jutsu, do you? Do you like it, then?"

"Do I like it? It's something I am good at, and it is useful in ninjutsu. I've done it since I was very young, and I've been told I have a talent for it. Is that the same as liking it?"

"Well, yeah, I think so…" What a strange person. He acted like he was born yesterday. Sociable wasn't a trait she considered herself to have, but Kana was feeling in an odd mood that made her want to talk. It was a distraction, at least.

Sai seemed to be thinking hard about something, his brow furrowed and his mouth pressed into a line while he eyed his half-done drawing of a flower. He looked up and faced her, his Adam's apple bobbing. "What do you like doing in your spare time?" he asked.

Kana narrowed her eyes. From what she could tell so far, this wasn't something he usually said- he was making an effort to continue the conversation. What did she like doing? Most of her time was spent training, talking with Itachi, trying to collect jinchuuriki, or doing some other travelling. There was not a lot of time for hobbies.
She wringed her hands and sighed, "I suppose practising ninjutsu would be something I like, but other than that, I don't have any hobbies. I can't read very well, and I guess I don't have any spare time to do things other people would do."

"I never had any spare time either. All I did was draw and train, and quite often they coincided with one another." His voice was pleasant, but Kana heard the mild longing.

"Why are you using the past tense? What's different now?"

"Well, I was recruited into Team Kakashi to replace Sasuke Uchiha. I've been relieved of my duties as a member of ANBU's Root division for some time now, for the foreseeable future."

"Sasuke?" she said sharply. "He was on Kakashi's team before you? Are you serious?"

Sai blanched at her sudden raised voice. "Yes, that's right. After Sasuke turned traitor and Naruto returned from training, the team was left short of one person."

"Right, I see. Sasuke really was a criminal then…" All the more reason she loathed him. "And you got picked out of everyone."

"I was picked to join them by my superiors for rather specific reasons."

"And they were…?"

"I was in Root," he said hastily, "and they needed a highly skilled member of ANBU. They were worried that the seal keeping the demon inside Naruto is weakening."

"Do you prefer being in a team rather than working where you did before?"

Sai gave a small smile, and she could see a shine in his eyes. "Yes, I do. It's an atmosphere I enjoy."

She nodded. If he didn't want to tell her the details of his past, that was fine, but she was certainly curious to know more about ANBU and Root… those names rang a bell, somewhere in the back of her head, but she couldn't quite place where she'd heard them before. Maybe she would ask another time- it might not be a topic people talked about in their first conversations. How would she know? Her first conversation with Itachi was her first training session.

"I thought you were a fugitive," he commented.

"Well, I'm not now," she snapped. "They let me go on the condition that I spy on Akatsuki or delay their plans. I tried, but I'm not sure the insignificant bits of information I sent were enough. Being a double agent is tough." Wasn't it, Itachi?

"Yes, it is."

"I don't know if they'll let me stay…" The fear in her voice was too obvious. She covered it up with a laugh, but it came out as a nervous giggle. "I could end up killing all of you." In their point of view, she could turn on them and kill them, but… could anyone other than Itachi reign in her powers, whatever they were? Having him as a constant, she rarely lost her temper and he trained her well enough to use her power in a constructive way. The superfluous chakra still prevented her from relaxing, but it had been good. Now what?

"Yes, you could. I don't know very much about you, but you seem to have some past experiences related to mine, and you don't seem to regard the Leaf with hate."

No, he was right. She didn't hate them. This was somewhere she wanted to be.

"I'd better get going," she said quickly, and got to her feet. She brushed off the dirt from her skort and ran off again.

That Sai was strange, unlike any person she had met before. His story must have been a long and complicated one, but Kana counted on her surprisingly sharp ability to deduce things- and people- to lead her to some truth about him. Just like she had with Itachi, and she had been right, after all.

She was nearing the edge of the river, when a disturbing chakra caught her attention. It was the chakra of an ordinary man, but it was shrouded with some other, ancient power, and also… yes, also an eye technique. It was mixed up and twisted, and masked with deadly determination.

She turned around swiftly, and a man was stood in front of her. He was very old, and his face was wrapped up in many places with white bandages, revealing one of his eyes and hiding the other, and he was dressed in draping robes, walking with a stick. His eye was almost closed- she could barely make contact with them. His expression was impossible to read.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

"I am Danzou."

"Danzou- wait!" Danzou Shimura, the head of… the head of the Root faction of ANBU! Suddenly all the information Kakashi had previously told her came rushing into her head. So this was Sai's superior, the person who ordered Itachi, then her to spy and be double agents. What a crook. This meant that Sai, being in Root , was raised in that inhumane way, told to kill his emotions, forced into specialised training and unethical missions for the sake of the village. Why were the elders so cruel?

"You are to come with me."

"Why should I?"

"Because it is to be decided- whether you are going to be staying in the Hidden Leaf a moment longer."

Kana agreed to go with him, but walked as far away from him as she could without losing sight. He led her through the back alleys instead of through the centre of the village, and they ended up walking the perimeter, all the way to an enormous red building. Kana peered up at it, shielding the sun from her eyes, wondering what it was for. She heard the distance chatter of children coming from inside, followed by a few isolated and stern adult voices.

"This is the Leaf ninja academy. The Hokage's office is at the top," Danzou said, almost spitting out the word 'Hokage' with marked contempt.

She nodded and entered the building. The stairs were seemingly endless, and this time Danzou insisted on walking directly behind her, making her feel extremely uncomfortable. At last the reached the office, and Kana opened the door.

In front of her was who she assumed was the Hokage, trying to remember if they had actually met, a stern-looking, thin lipped man and woman, several jounin and two men in cloaks. They all regarded her with emotionless, scrutinising faces. Danzou cleared his throat behind her and she stumbled further in, wringing her hands which were becoming coated with sweat. She could feel her mouth going as dry as the desert.

"Kana," greeted the Hokage. "I assume you're healing well, considering you're up and about so fast."

"I heal fast," Kana replied with awkwardness.

"How dare you not address the Hokage without the proper honorifics," the old lady scolded. Kana's jaw hardened.

"Lady Hokage…" she amended.

"The small amounts of inside information you have been sending have been of some use," the Hokage said, "We believe it will be helpful, so thank you for that. You've done a good job."

The atmosphere lightened considerably, and Kana could hardly believe her ears. This stranger had actually praised her; although it did feel strange being praised for betraying the people who were supposed to be her comrades. She mumbled her thanks. The hawk-like eyes of the Leaf elders and senior shinobi were making her feel horribly exposed. The Hokage's less harsh words did a little to quell her anxieties.

"That doesn't matter," the old lady spoke again. "This girl is a threat to national security. Having the nine-tails boy and an ex-criminal within the village walls at the same time is bound to land us in a crisis. Think about it, Tsunade."

"I am thinking about it," the Hokage snapped, "and I know just as well as you what a risk this is. But I know a certain someone who would never give up on a person simply for being a criminal…"

"You're talking of Naruto Uzumaki, the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki, aren't you? Do not be ridiculous. Sasuke Uchiha is a lost cause and you know it. It's time that Naruto accepted that, too."

"Don't talk of things you know nothing about!" Kana interjected with force.

"I suggest you keep quiet!" the old man said. "You're in a precarious position as it is."

"No, I think we should let her speak," Tsunade countered.

Kana agreed that she ought to be able to stand up for herself and put forward her case. What use was it if only biased people deliberated over her situation?
She spoke for a long time, being careful not to mention certain details of her life but letting them have enough knowledge of her to feel that she wouldn't be harmful. Even she couldn't guarantee it, she couldn't give them any hints of her insecurity. When asked about Itachi, she angrily proclaimed his innocence, but luckily this was overlooked.

"You won't catch me begging any other time," Kana warned, "but please, please let me stay here. I have to protect what- what is important to me. The Leaf is a place with good people in it, and I want to be a part of it." She felt her face heating up from the embarrassment of having to grovel like this. "I won't cause any trouble. I swear it. I know how vital you guys think village security is, and I understand where you're coming from, but you can't just turn me away when I want to help."

One of the jounin cleared his throat.

Tsunade glanced to her left, where he was stood. "Yes, Shikaku?"

His voice was a husky baritone with a grave, solemn tone. "In terms of strategy, allowing Kana to remain here is advantageous and far from dangerous. I don't believe we have a reason to doubt her intentions to help us. Itachi Uchiha was formerly of this village, and also her Akatsuki partner. "

Kana cut in, "Yes, and I want to do what he couldn't. I want to help this place on my own terms."

"It's decided then," Tsunade said. "Kana, you are hereby granted access and residence in the Hidden Leaf village. You will not be assigned a rank as you did not enter the ninja academy, but you may join ANBU if you wish. You will be expected to serve the village in times of crisis, accept any mission required of you and vow to live your life in service of who are now your people."

Kana felt the tiny embers of triumph.

"This is an outrage!" the old lady exclaimed.

"This is my decision." She turned to Kana. "Kana, we can set you up with somewhere to live, but it will be monitored by ANBU at all times. You understand why, don't you?"

"Yeah. Thanks for letting me stay."

"You'll be on a tight leash for some time, so be prepared for that. In the mean time, get accustomed to the people here. Try to get to know other members of your generation. Socialise and earn our trust. We're all counting on you not to betray us or let us down."

"I wouldn't! Letting down a comrade is something stupid people do. You can trust me." But I can't. Thanks for believing in me, anyway. I appreciate it.

"It's settled then. You're free to go. Just report back here later so I can give you somewhere to live. Nobody sleeps rough in this village."

Kana left the room. It felt like a fifty tonne weight had been heaved off her shoulders. The Leaf village was good, though she couldn't say she trusted the higher-ups, with the exception of Tsunade and that man, Shikaku. Was this truly a place she could call home? Really and truly?

"I did it, Itachi…" she said, "I can carry on your will."

She felt her eyes watering, but bit back the tears and ran out of the building, feeling on top of the world.