Helloooo. It's been such a long time since I updated, most of you probably forgot this story existed! ;) Anyway, enjoy this chapter; we're close to the end now, aha!

Enjoy and review :)

Chapter 18- Prepare for battle

"It can't be! No!" Kana cried as both she and Itachi were hauled into the real world. Her body hummed with life, until she found herself spluttering on the cold, hard ground of the Gedo statue's cave.

Itachi hoisted her to her feet. "It seems I am alive again…" The dread was apparent to Kana behind the impassive gaze on his face. "Damn you, Madara."

"What's going on? Where did they go? This whole area is empty," she said in a small voice. "There should be dead people everywhere. Well, not dead, but sort of half alive…"

"Half alive, huh. That's a smart way of looking at it." He caught her eye contact. "If there are others being resurrected besides myself, then we must free them from the edo tensei. I do need to free myself first, however, to make that happen."

"Thinking of others, as usual. I've missed hearing words like yours, Itachi… No. Let's stop talking. We need to get out of here and start fixing things in the outside world."

"I don't think that Kabuto would let me wander around on my own after summoning me back for a purpose like war. There's a great likelihood that he will attempt to control my movements to attack the village." His face wrinkled slightly with pain at the thought.

"Then we have to free you at once."

Kana didn't know what Itachi was planning, but when he moved towards her with his hand outstretched and his mangekyou out, she felt like backing away. The magnitude of power like his was refreshing but heavy. A pleating frown of concentration was marked on his pursed lips, and he closed his eyes as he placed two fingers on her forehead, running them past her nose and right down to her chin. Suddenly, tears of blood escaped from her widened eyes.

Wiping it away, she stared in shock at the crimson liquid in her hands. "What the hell did you just do to me?" she whispered.

"I bestowed upon you a new power. It'll help you in the fight to defend the Leaf. You already have the mangekyou. You'll know how to use that and this new power, when the time comes. I did the same for Sasuke. I can at least do this for you."

Tears of blood. What otherworldly technique could possibly necessitate tears of blood? Also… Kana had never considered the likelihood of her having the mangekyou. Tsukuyomi, the powerful genjutsu, she could use it now.

"Use it to stop me if I become a danger to the village."

She nodded.

Suddenly, Itachi's body became rigid. His eyes lost the tired but alive spark, and descended into darkness. His head tilted to the side, expressionless.

"Katon, great fireball jutsu," he said tonelessly.

Kana never anticipated the sheer force of his power, and only barely dodged it in time, tumbling to the floor but scrambling to her feet as quickly as possible. The enormous mass of fire chakra smouldered and dissipated in the air, and when the smoke had cleared, Itachi was nowhere to be seen.
She flung her mind outward to try and locate his chakra, but he was already out of range. He must have been under full control by Kabuto, wherever that snake was hiding himself. The fear she felt in her heart when those eyes of his descended away still caused it to hammer away under her sweaty mail vest, and she couldn't concentrate.

"I have to go back and warn everyone. I have to make it back faster than the edo tensei shinobi."

She gathered up her energy, and bolted out of the cave, leaping over the wire traps and explosive tags as if they were never there.

The rocky ground crunched under her feet that slammed on the ground as she sped forward, chasing away the rising dawn with the force of her haste, keen to get away from that awful place. She wasn't far away from the Leaf now- out in the distance, the steadily improving image of the new fortifications for the village were visible. A building site, a shadow of its former self, but still there and standing.

The gates were in sight, close, and signs of destruction were beginning to make themselves known. Abandoned carts, fallen trees, collapsed buildings and scattered rubble dotted the landscape which would have otherwise been idyllic. She grimaced in guilt before stepping before the makeshift gates.

"Izumo. Kotetsu," she called. "It's been a while. I'm back."

The two friends emerged from the sentry hut cautiously, kunai drawn.

"Don't worry. I won't hurt you, you know."

"Where is Lord Hokage? Why have you returned without him, without your partner Sai?" Izumo demanded, clearly resisting the urge to be friendly.

She swallowed. "A lot happened on the way to the summit. Danzou went away and never returned, so I don't know what happened to him… and Sai was captured by the Akatsuki. The leader kidnapped him and force me to comply with their plans."

"You can tell all this to the jounin council. And your teammates. It's their trust you need to earn back, remember? I can tell a lot went down, but you've got to talk to everyone." He dropped his kunai and grinned. "I can't tell you how glad we are to see you back."

With a sigh of relief, she shook his outstretched hand. "It's really urgent. Get everyone together. Thanks, guys."

Kotetsu nodded. "Sure thing, Kana. Your teammates have been waiting for your return. We'll put the emergency call out."

Most of the people she knew: Kakashi, Sakura, Naruto, Hajime and his cousins Neji and Hinata, Shikamaru, Yamato, Ibiki, Inoichi, Izumo and Kotetsu were present, as well as some faces she'd not remembered seeing. There was also Shikamaru's father Shikaku Nara, more ANBU shinobi, some others who had introduced themselves as Ino, Chouza, Kurenai, Anko, Kiba, Shino and still, even more shinobi whom Kana had never even met. The majority of the chuunin or above shinobi in the village had gathered to hear Kana talk, which was tonnes more than she could ever have expected. She was still under the impression that she was not trusted.

Hajime watched her with a face clouded with conflict and concern. They hadn't had a chance to talk since her return. In fact, the only ones she had spoken to since she got back were Izumo and Kotetsu. Stood at the front with the other jounin, he opened his mouth as if to say something, but collected himself and remained silent. Kana mouthed 'I'll talk to you later' at him, to which he swallowed, and nodded, giving nothing away.

When she stood before them, Kana twisted strands of hair around her fingers and realised she'd never spoken like this in front of people. But she knew what Itachi would say… Ninjas had determination and guts. She wasn't going to get anywhere acting like a damaged, worthless child.

"Thanks for coming to hear me out," she began a little quietly, but her voice gathered momentum. "I know a lot of you don't trust me, but I've come to explain the situation and the possible reasons for Lord Danzou's absence. If you'll listen, then that's all I could hope for."

They stared, scrutinising her expectantly.

"When we set out to the summit, Danzou- Lord Danzou-, Sai and me, we were ambushed by the true leader of Akatsuki, the man who claims to be Madara Uchiha, but I highly doubt this is true. Lord Danzou disappeared without warning, and this man showed up out of nowhere, and kidnapped Sai, threatening to kill him unless I went along with him and returned to Akatsuki."

"That's bullshit!" someone shouted. "Why should we believe her?"

"Calm down," Kakashi said firmly. "Let her finish."

She took a deep breath and continued, "The man took me to a cave where someone you know… I think his name was Kabuto… anyway, Kabuto and him claimed that they were going to start a war with the ninja world, and I'm sure you know about that already from the summit. Part of Kabuto's plan is to resurrect many of the most powerful shinobi of this world, and force them to battle us, but the man didn't believe Kabuto's statement, and demanded a pilot test be carried out. A test of the edo tensei revival jutsu."

Someone gasped. Another person growled angrily.

"One of the reasons I was kidnapped as a kid and trained by the Akatsuki was so that they could use my massive chakra reserves for sealing the tailed beasts, but in the end, they ended up using my power to cast the edo tensei without having to sacrifice living humans. They resurrected many shinobi, I believe, and that includes my sensei and partner, Itachi Uchiha." She cringed, expecting a hostile response, and pressed on, squeezing her eyes shut. "I know what you must think of me. I'm a dangerous shinobi, and you have every right to be scared witless of me, but this is a really serious situation. If we don't act soon, even the remains of our beloved Leaf will be destroyed by the resurrected shinobi."

She waited in dread for their reply.

"Your beloved Leaf?" Inoichi said incredulously, his eyebrows raised.

"If you must know, I was actually born here, so I have as much right to say I love the village as you, Yamanaka. My sensei loved this village as well, although you might find that hard to believe, but I spent so much of my life with him and came to understand him. No matter what happens, one's love for their village can't ever truly go away. I think we should protect the Leaf no matter what."

"But why should we trust you? You destroyed our whole village in the first place! This power of yours will be exploited in the future, again and again, and you can't even control it," a kunoichi ANBU demanded. "We don't want to repeat the same disaster."

"I know," she replied evenly, "I know that's how you must feel. But I am stupidly asking for everyone's trust one more time, that I am telling the truth and that I promise to defend the village with you."

Finally, Hajime took a step forward. He didn't look away from Kana's eyes when he spoke. "Everyone, we should stop doubting Kana's word…" At their bemused expressions, he elaborated, "With the byakugan, one can practically tell what their opponent is thinking about from their eye movements or facial expressions, and I'm sure that every Hyuuga in this place can tell that Kana is definitely not lying."

"It's true," Neji said, nodding. "We can all see it."

Kakashi stepped out in front of everyone and put his hands out. "So, who is willing to agree with Kana and defend the Leaf?"

A few people murmured their assent, before Hajime shouted, "Cowards! When are you going to stop being fearful of what power you don't understand? I for one will defend Kana and the village until the end."

As if Hajime had supreme command over all of them, gradually, one by one, they raised their hands, creating a sea of agreement in the air that made Kana's smile spread across her face. Someone let out a cheer, which caught on, and soon everyone in the vicinity was yelling and crying out their commitment. Kana beamed. Nobody loved their village more than Itachi, but these people were brilliant. Hajime and Kakashi, and Neji too, had helped her when she needed them, and together, they had rallied the whole shinobi force.

"Let's kick their asses!" she declared, causing a rumble of absurd laughter.

Once the ruckus had died down, Kana escaped the slightly unwanted attention and slipped out through a back door. She leaned against the wall, breathing heavily. Who cared if not everyone trusted her? She had the trust of her comrades and she would gain the villagers' trust when the battle was underway. Itachi's home was at stake. Things were moving very quickly…

"Kana!"

She blinked and realised that Hajime was stood in front of her. Nothing was said for a while, Kana at a loss for words and Hajime clearly in the same state. He opened his mouth to speak, but closed it and broke into a warm grin, something she had never seen.

"Well done, Kana," he said, "I've never seen you act so confidently."

She laughed and stopped leaning back on the wall. "Well, you helped a lot, you know. I couldn't have done it without you."

Attempting to laugh like nothing was wrong was difficult. The feeling was on the surface, but the moment she finished laughing, the sense of fear began to smoulder and rise. She tried to keep her smile, but she got lost looking at him and forgot what to do.

"This is going to be a hard battle," he stated.

She nodded. "Really, really tough. To be honest, I don't know if everyone is going to make it out of this."

"You seem more scared than you should be."

"It's not what you think. Itachi, my former sensei, is going to be among the resurrected ninjas. There's going to be some of the most powerful ninjas that ever lived. I think the Akatsuki will be part of that, too."

"Then we'll need to fight that bit harder, won't we?" His voice took an encouraging tone. "This isn't a suicide mission. Plus, the Leaf has Kakashi, the prime candidate for Hokage. We have Naruto, who beat Pain and Kakuzu, Shikamaru who was able to beat Hidan, Sakura who helped defeat Sasori, and so many others. Also… we have you. If you had enough power to destroy our village, you have enough to save it, too."

He did have a point. Nevertheless, there was the conflict of being able to control that power as well. She had only been able to do that because Itachi was there and the seal was stronger when she was a child. Things were different now.

"Come on now, Kana. You should have more confidence in yourself. You have plenty of power to back it up."

"I know. I have to stop feeling sorry for myself, and doubting things..."

"No! If you don't cheer up, I'll…"

"You'll what?" she dared.

"I don't know…"

"Ha! You can't beat me at anything, anyway."

He folded his arms and let out a low chuckle. "I cheered you up, then."

Kana gaped at him, mortified, and began to laugh. He hadn't…! He knew her too well.

After their sudden laughter subsided, Kana remembered something important. She had to tell him, at least, even if no-one else was to know. He deserved at least that. If the battle ended badly, she wanted at least one person to know that she was worthy of being buried in the Leaf's cemetery, as a resident.

"I think I should tell you something…" she said, swallowing. Hajime gave her a questioning glance.

"What is it?"

"The night Itachi slaughtered the Uchiha clan, he left his little brother Sasuke alive, but Sasuke isn't the only surviving Uchiha… I was born here, an Uchiha, in the Leaf, a direct descendant of the main house of the clan. I was taken from the village as a baby and my power sealed. I'm sorry, Hajime, I should have told you sooner but I didn't have the chance."

He didn't say anything for a long while. A shadow passed over his face as it clouded with apprehension. She bit her lip, but remained waiting solidly for an answer. Silence made the air ring with tension that wormed into her ears, which twitched in wait.

"Kana…" Great. He sounded angry. "Kana, how the hell did you think that would change how I feel about you?!"

Her face flooded crimson. "I was only saying!"

"I know, I know. Just promise me one thing, okay?"

"What's that?"

"If we both make it out of this alive, will you come and live with me?"

Later on that day, battle preparations were progressing fast, with Kana, Shikaku and Shikamaru in charge of strategy and battle formation, Kakashi as supreme commander and Hajime as proxy. She felt strangely at ease after talking with Hajime and later with Kakashi, and now was determined to retrieve Sai from Tobi, and also…

Find out what Itachi was planning. She would start by freeing him from the edo tensei.